• by Wayne Friedman , September 23, 2010

Rocketing local TV station advertising continued its torrid pace, ringing up almost a 30% gain in the second quarter of 2010.

The TVB, the local television station advertising group, says TV stations grew to $3.4 billion from $2.7 billion. Automotive advertising -- still TV stations' biggest advertising category -- almost doubled, up 82.5% versus the second quarter of 2009.

Other big gains: The second-biggest ad group, communications/telecommunications, was up 15.4%; restaurants, in third place, was 15.8% higher; next was car and truck dealerships, a 25.8% gain; travel, hotels & resorts grew 10.9%; furniture retailers climbed 17.3%; financial services was up 59.4%; legal services improved 18.2%; food advertising added 31.5%; and schools took on 13.1% more advertising.

The data provided to the TVB by Kantar Media also showed that network TV was up, but at a slow pace: 4.7% to $6.1 billion. In contrast to the rest of the marketplace, syndication was off 10.1% to $976 million.

Analysts have said the drop stems from syndication's upfront in 2009, which like the rest of the TV business suffered mightily in the recession. TV syndication books the majority of its yearly inventory -- more than other TV platforms -- in the upfront periods.

Overall for the first half of 2010, local broadcast spot television has been up 24.4% to $6.9 billion, syndicated TV was down 11.7% to $1.9 billion, and network TV grew 8.0% to $13.3 billion. Total broadcast TV advertising increased 10.4% for the first six months of the year.

Looking at the top 10 advertisers, the Chrysler Group was the biggest, gaining 302.4% versus the second quarter of 2009; the second-biggest is AT&T, 81.7% higher. Ford Motor dealers group was next at 76.3%, with Honda Motors improved 28.1%. The Toyota Motor dealers association gained 104.0%; Verizon Communications headed in the other direction, down 1.4%. Comcast Corp. added on 12.5%; General Mills climbed 25.2%; McDonald's was up 30.5%; and General Motors quadrupled at 417.7%.