• by Wayne Friedman , April 1, 2009

Network television took the biggest advertising hit in the fourth quarter of 2008 as compared to other broadcast platforms.

According to the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB), network television sank almost 10% in the period versus the fourth quarter 2007 to $6.4 billion. TVB's data was released from TNS Media Intelligence.

Local broadcast, which had a traumatic 2008 overall, was down 3.4% in the fourth quarter (to $4.6 billion), and 2.4% for the year (to $16.5 billion). In typical political and Olympic years, local broadcast would see low double-digit percent gains in advertising revenues.

Syndication TV programming continues to be surprisingly resilient versus other broadcast platforms. Ad sales were flat in the fourth quarter to $1.1 billion, and up 6.5% for the year at $4.4 billion.

Overall, fourth-quarter revenues for broadcast were down 6.3% to $12.0 billion and virtually flat for the year -- down 0.4% -- to $46.4 billion.

As with most media businesses, network television had a better first three-quarters of the year. It ended at $25.4 billion, virtually flat versus the year before, and down 0.1%.

As expected, TV's big advertising category -- automotive -- was a major reason for the declines in the fourth quarter for local TV markets.

Autos were down 29.3% to $755.2 million. The second-largest revenue category -- political -- was up 675.5% to $417.6 million. The telecommunications category, the third-biggest revenue group, was one of the few improvers -- up 7.9% to $403.2 million.

Other categories that witnessed gains were government and organizations -- up 108.5% to $247 million. Financial advertising was up 4.8% to $144.1 million, and schools, colleges & camps, 10.7% higher to $129.1.

On the losing end: Restaurants were down 9.4% at $322.1 million, insurance was off 5.9% to $178.5 million, car and truck dealers lost 32.8% to $162.6 million, and furniture advertising was down 18.1% to $152.7 million.

One automotive company bucking the trend for the period was Honda Motor, the No. 1 local market spender. It was up 9.0% to $93.3 million compared with the fourth quarter of 2007. Other gainers were: AT&T, which spent the fourth-most money during the period. It was up 2.8% to $81.9 million. General Mills, in fifth place, was up 91.1% to $76.0 million.

Comcast, which came in at eighth place overall, almost doubled its spending. The biggest cable system operator in the U.S. spent $66.2 million, 87.4% more with local TV stations than it did versus the same period in 2007.