Kantar: TV Continues to Lead U.S. Ad Market

NEW YORK: Total advertising spending in the second quarter of 2013 increased 3.5 percent from the year-ago figures, finishing the period at $35.8 billion, with television experiencing overall growth of 6.4 percent, according to the latest figures from Kantar Media.

Total spending for the first six months of the year grew 2 percent to $68.9 billion.

The television sector, which held strong, was helped in part by post-season basketball games. Cable TV spending shot up 14.9 percent, due in large part to a number of NBC playoff broadcasts along with higher prime-time ad prices at leading networks. Network TV spending was up 4.9 percent. Spanish-language TV ad spending increased 6.1 percent in Q2, thanks to higher budgets from direct response marketers, auto manufacturers and restaurants. Hispanic networks continue to see better results than local market Hispanic stations. Spot TV expenditures dipped 3.5 percent in the period, however, excluding the political category, spot TV spending in Q2 was flat versus a year ago.

“Ad spend has now increased for six consecutive quarters and in reaching 3.5-percent growth for Q2, had its best performance in a non-Olympic period since the end of 2010,” said Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media North America. “However, the gain was boosted by two unusual phenomena. On one side, year ago spending was deflated by major advertisers who conserved budgets in advance of the Summer Olympics and this makes current year growth appear larger. On the other side, there were more NBA playoff games this year and it generated a sizable windfall of extra TV ad revenue. Without these factors, Q2 ad spend growth would have been lower by about one full percentage point.”