Without the Olympic Games and political campaigns to boost coffers, local broadcast ad revenue was down 6.6% for the second quarter, said the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB), compared with the second quarter of last year.
Network TV was down 0.2% in the quarter and syndicated TV down 4.7%, according to the TVB, which worked with TNS Media Intelligence on the figures.
For the first half of 2007, local TV was down 4.8%, syndicated TV was down 5.3% and network TV was down 3.5%. Those figures spelled out a total broadcast decline of 4.1%.
Among ad categories, automotive was down 10.2% from the same quarter a year ago, financial was down 17.2% and government and organizations was down 45.6%, although that number should skyrocket when the political battles start heating up for 2008.
On the plus side, telecommunications advertising was up 9.5%; schools, colleges and camps were up 7.5%; and travel, hotels and resorts jumped 13.1%.
TNS released its own first-half-2007 numbers Tuesday.
