National Cable, Spanish TV Gains Overall 1Q Ad Slump

Nielsen Monitor-Plus: Overall Ad Spending Down 0.6%

By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 6/12/2007 11:43:00 AM

Advertising spending for the first quarter dipped 0.6% compared with the same period last year, according to preliminary figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

Ad expenditures were mixed across media, with gains in some categories and declines in others. Internet advertising continued to grow steadily and saw the biggest percent gain, with an increase of 31.9% in the first three months.

National cable TV was up 2.5%, while Spanish-language TV saw a 4% increase.

Spot TV markets 101-210 also reported growth, 4.1%, while network TV dropped by 8.5% this quarter compared with the same time period last year.

“Spanish-language TV-advertising spending continues to show growth -- not that surprising with the increasing emphasis on targeted marketing,” Brian Lane, senior vice president of client strategy and product development for Nielsen Monitor-Plus, said in a prepared statement.

“Last year’s Torino Olympics in February 2006 contributed to a higher-than-typical first quarter, resulting in a decline in TV ad spending for Q1 2007,” he added. “If you removed the Olympics’ ad spending from the network numbers last year, those numbers would actually be up this quarter.”

In the other media categories, the gains or losses were: national magazine, up 6.5%; spot radio, up 1.4%; local Sunday supplement, up 0.9%; outdoor, up 0.8%; national Sunday supplement, down 1.2%; network radio, down 2.2%; spot TV top 100 markets, down 3.7%; local magazine, down 4.1%; syndicated TV, down 4.5%; national newspaper, down 4.9%; and local newspaper, down 6.6%.