Most forms of television posted gains in advertising spending during what was an otherwise sluggish third quarter.
Total TV spending was up 3.2% in the third quarter, raising the gain for the year to date to 2.3%, according to new figures from Kantar Media.
Cable TV was up 6.5% in the quarter and is up 9.9% for the year.
Network TV enjoyed its first positive quarter of the year, posting a 0.2% increase. For the year, network advertising is down 5.7%.
Spanish language TV posted an 18% gain in the quarter and is up 7.4% for the year.
Syndication posted a 14.8% increase in the quarter. For the year, syndication is up 17.2%.
Half of the top 10 television advertisers spent less in the first nine months of 2011 than they had a year ago. In total, spending by the top 10 TV advertisers in TV was up 1% to $7.3 billion.
Spot TV was down 5.7%, dropping its total for the year to off 2.7%.
Overall ad expenditures grew just 0.4% in the third quarter, bringing the total so far in 2011 to $104.7 billion, up 1.5% from a year ago.
"The cautious optimism for the advertising market at the beginning of 2011 has been replaced by the statistical evidence of progressively slowing growth rates," Jon Swallen, senior VP of research at Kantar said in a statement.
