Nielsen Media Research's Monitor-Plus, measuring eight media, announced
Friday that ad spending for the first quarter of 2002 rose 1.8 percent to $17.3
billion from $17 billion the year before.
For its part, network-cable advertising edged up 0.4 percent to almost $2.75
billion from $2.73 billion, according to Nielsen.
Network television showed the strongest increase, up 9.2 percent to $5.32
billion from $4.88 billion. The research firm attributed much of network TV's
gain to NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympic Games in February.
Spot TV increased 1.9 percent to $4.55 billion, while syndication declined
8.9 percent to $734.9 million.
As for the Hispanic TV networks, Nielsen reported that they slumped 2.8
percent to $413.9 million in the initial 2002 quarter.
Elsewhere, national magazines saw advertising revenues decrease 5.4 percent
to $2.65 billion. Spot radio, encompassing 19 markets, rose 5.1 percent to
$807.4 million. Couponing sustained the heaviest declines of the measure media,
off 26.8 percent to $113.9 million in the first quarter, according to
Nielsen.
Looking across the eight media sectors, Monitor-Plus found that automotive
posted the largest dollar increase for the quarter (up almost $170 million, or
10 percent, to $1.9 billion), while beer and motion pictures notched the
heftiest percentage gains -- up 37 percent to $250.4 million and 35 percent to
$663.7 million, respectively.
Motion pictures was the No. 3 category overall, beer No. 8.
