Cable Strong in U.S. Adspend

NEW YORK: Advertising spending on cable TV was up 9.1 percent in the U.S. for the first three quarters of 2009, according to Nielsen. 

Spanish-language cable also saw positive gains, up 36.7 percent. Overall, spending on advertising fell 11.5 percent. Compared to the same time period in 2008, Spanish-language television’s adspend (cable and network combined) remained flat, falling just 0.7 percent. TV ad spending overall fell 8.3 percent year-on-year. Network TV was down 13.9 percent, while spending on syndicated TV dropped 15.9 percent. The total spent on ads placed on TV accounted for 56.8 percent of all advertising expenditures so far this year, up two percentage points from the year-ago period.

Despite a decline of 31 percent, automotive continued to be the top ad-spending category. Pharmaceutical followed in a distant second, but was down 4.6 percent. Quick service restaurant, wireless telephone services and department stores round out the top five product categories by ad spending. 

“The struggling economy continues to take its toll on the advertising industry, with most sectors lower than last year,” said Terrie Brennan, the senior VP for new business development at Nielsen. “In general, television—particularly cable television—seems to be holding up better than print-based media. For example, local newspapers have seen 12,000 fewer advertisers in their pages in 2009. Meanwhile, nine of the top ten cable TV advertisers have increased their spending in the medium so far this year.”