• by Wayne Friedman , October 11, 2010

With two and a half months left of 2010, The Nielsen Company says the first six months of the year witnessed a 3.8% growth rate in U.S. ad spending -- continuing its steady rise over the last year and a half.

Although many advertising categories are down, automotive is one of the few bright spots.

Auto, the largest advertising category, is up nearly 27% to $4.4 billion for the first half of 2010 versus 2009. Restaurants have also risen -- but not nearly as much -- just 2.5% to $824 million. Two other ad categories grew: department stores (up nearly 5%) and auto insurance (23% higher).

Still struggling are the telephone and wireless services, down nearly 14% to $1.52 billion. Another top 10 category, direct sales of consumer products, is down 11.3% to $828 million.

Quick-service restaurants, the second-biggest player, is down 4.3% to $2.02 billion. Pharmaceuticals (third place) are off 4.4% to $2 billion; motion pictures, in the No. 4 position, are 3.25% lower to $1.6 billion.

Television continues to grow, with cable network television adding on another 13% to $9.1 billion. Broadcast network television has also climbed nearly 9% to $11.5 billion. Spanish-language broadcast network TV is the biggest growth category of any medium: 24.2% higher to $1.6 billion.

However, spot television went down 3.25% to $10.3 billion. National syndication television advertising added just 1% to $1.1 billion. Outdoor was a bit under the average as well -- up 1.5% -- $1.5 billion.

Print advertising continued to offer a mixed picture. Local newspapers were essentially flat, up 0.23% to $5.2 billion. National magazines inched up 2.26% to $7.4 billion. Local Sunday supplements were down 12.05% to $23.5 million; national newspapers grew nearly 11% to $669 million; and national Sunday supplements were 21.6% higher to $559 million.

Business-to-business advertising offered up more suffering, down a big 19% to $1.1 billion. National radio was essentially flat -- rising just over half a percentage point to $495 million.

All this brings Nielsen's first sixth-month tally to $54 billion, up $3.82% over the same six months in 2009.