• by Wayne Friedman , May 9, 2011

More mid- to-small-sized TV stations groups are feeling a slowdown in advertising sales -- as predicted by many industry estimates. The Atlanta-based Gray Television dropped 1% to $69.7 million in the first quarter. The group net loss narrowed to $3.1 million from $4.7 million.

The TV station group's biggest advertising sales -- local advertising -- increased $300,000, or 1%, to $43.8 million. But national spot advertising revenue -- which is typically sold by the big national spot sales group -- declined $1 million, or 7%, to $13.0 million.

Gray's biggest ad decline -- political advertising -- sank $1.4 million, or 50%, to $1.4 million. This came from the industry's now-typical, two-year election cycle trend; Gray is in an "off year" of that cycle.

Better news is its steady continued growth from Internet advertising revenue -- up 38% or $1.1 million to $4.2 million. Also, retrans ad revenue grew 9% or $400,000 to $5.0 million. Gray says revenue from production services declined $300,000, or 17%, to $1.6 million.

In the sports programming arena, Gray did pull in $200,000 in ad revenue from its Fox stations' 2011 Super Bowl. But first-quarter 2011 had a difficult comparison to first-quarter 2010, where the group benefited from $2.8 million from the 2010 Winter Olympic Games on its NBC stations.

Gray's says its five largest ad categories in the first quarter were: automotive, which gained 3% in revenue; medical, up 5%; restaurant, 4% lower; communications, sinking 1%; and furniture and appliances, improving 7%.