• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 9, 2009

Standard & Poor's said Wednesday that bond markets may be improving, but media companies look to still "be bumping along the bottom of the recession."

S&P said that even with a lift in ad spending, "the speed" for a "rebound" for companies depending on ad dollars remains "uncertain." And print businesses may not experience "much of a recovery at all."

Based on a forecast of real GDP growth in 2010 of 1.9%, S&P projects about a 4.2% growth in domestic ad spending, buoyed by the midterm Congressional elections and Winter Olympics.

But when those spikes go away in 2011, S&P expects 0.6% growth with real GDP at 3.1%.

One sign of how difficult the media landscape may still be: "Many TV broadcasters are struggling to stay in compliance with their bank covenants ... [and] we believe some of the weakest performers may default before ad demand picks up," S&P said.

"Magazine publishers similarly face near-term declines in credit quality, because of high debt levels, the migration of ad spending to the Internet, declining newsstand sales and cyclical declines in ad spending," S&P said. "It's also unclear when or if newspaper publishers might see any stabilization in ad revenues, which we expect to fall by a percentage in the low teens in 2010."