Ad Story

Cable TV (+13%) and Spanish-language TV (+24.2%) enjoyed a successful 1H10 where YOY ad spending growth is concerned, and Nielsen data show the possibility of additional improvement going forward as the lion’s share of sectors—even after all of them combined to spur 6 straight Qs of ad spending declines through 4Q09—were still cautious about increasing outlays during the period. At least the largest sector, automotive, roared back from Jan-June to easily lead all sectors in YOY ad spending growth (+26.9%) and auto insurance opened its purse strings to the tune of +22.6%, as both sectors are extremely important to cable sports nets and related programming. Still, the 10 sectors measured by Nielsen combined to avg a relatively paltry 3.4% increase (excluding Internet), weighed down by phones services/wireless (-13.6%), products-direct (-11.3%) and pharmaceutical (-4.4%). Back to media types, B2B (-19.2%), local Sun supplement (-12.1%) and local magazine (-7.7%) have some work to do. See below for the data covering media types and ad sectors.