Advertisers are now paying 25% more for TV commercial time than they did in the spring, according to CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves.

Moonves' comments, at a UBS media conference in New York, came a day after Viacom Inc. gave a similarly upbeat report on the ad market, a sign that businesses are more confident about putting money into marketing budgets.

The CBS chief said companies that were skittish about committing their ad budgets earlier in the year–when the economic outlook was less certain–have come back looking for more commercial time. He said CBS has pulled promotions for its own shows to accommodate the uptick in demand.

Moonves also said CBS has sold about 90% of the commercial time available for the Feb. 7 Super Bowl, on pace with ad sales NBC reported ahead of this year's game.

Along with signs of an improving economy, CBS is continuing to do well in the ratings.

CBS ranked first among the six broadcast networks in total viewers in all four weeks of the November sweeps, which ran from Oct. 29 to Nov. 25 and is the period when ratings are used to set local advertising prices.

Advertisers are paying 25% more during the current "scatter market" period compared with the "upfronts."

This year, television networks decided to withhold more of their ad inventories than usual for the scatter market, gambling that prices would improve later in the year. That bet appears to have paid off.

On Monday, Viacom Inc. CEO Philippe Dauman said ad prices at the company's cable channels are up by "double digit" percentages from the upfronts. Viacom, which owns the BET and MTV cable channels, is controlled along with CBS by media mogul Sumner Redstone's National Amusements holding company.