• by Wayne Friedman , December 16, 2013

Pitted against unfavorable comparisons to third-quarter 2012, which witnessed the Olympics and political advertising, this year’s third-quarter period was slightly down.

Kantar Media says total U.S. ad spending slipped 1.9% to $34 billion. Taking out the Olympic and political spending, U.S. ad spending was up 2.5% to 3.0% -- more indicative of how the market is currently performing, says the media research group.

As a result, TV overall -- the biggest media category -- was down 6.2%. Broadcast network TV spending sank nearly 18% in the period, local spot television was down 15%, and national syndication slipped 0.5%.

But other TV platforms witnessed gains: Spanish-language TV rose nearly 10% and cable TV had a 5.1% hike. The latter, according to Kantar, was the result of generally more cable TV inventory to sale.

Looking at new digital areas, Internet display (not including video or mobile) grew 14.5% -- with financial services, telecom and technology marketers spending more.

Another consistent old-line media platform -- outdoor advertising -- was up 5.5%, posting 16 consecutive quarters of improvements.

Magazines witnessed overall growth -- 4.3%, with the bulk of this coming from consumer magazines, which climbed 5.5%. Other print platforms didn’t fare as well. Newspapers lost 3.2%, with national newspapers off 6.4%. Spending was down for automotive, retail and financial services overall.

Radio was off 4.8%, mostly as a result of losses from national radio, which caved nearly 24%. But local radio was down only 0.4%, despite negative comparisons to the political spending that fueled third-quarter 2012 .