• by Wayne Friedman , September 19, 2005

For TV stations, the industry-wide weak advertising results come as no surprise--the first half of 2005 witnessed sales off almost 6 percent versus a year ago.

The blame been traditionally been attributed to the lack of TV Olympics sales and the fact that 2005 was not a major political advertising year. Local broadcast is comprised of local sales, coming from local TV station executives--as well as national spot sales, which come, in large part, through national sales representatives.

The Television Bureau of Advertising says local broadcast advertising sales actually worsened in the second quarter--down 7.2 percent to $3.9 billion, versus $4.2 billion a year ago.

But not all TV was off. Network television was 4.2 percent higher for the first six months, versus the same time period a year ago. Syndicated TV was 3.6 percent higher. For the second quarter, syndicated TV was up 3.1 percent, and network TV was 4.6 percent higher.

Overall broadcast TV ad sales eked out a 0.5 percent gain for the first six months. Second-quarter numbers were virtually flat versus a year ago, at a 0.1 percent rise. The TVB estimates come from TNS Media Intelligence/CMR data in the top 100 markets.

A little more than half of the top 25 advertisers spent less in the second quarter versus last year. SBC Communications was down 45.7 percent; Time Warner was off 28.0 percent; and Toyota Motor Corp. dropped 27.2 percent. Subway was one of the biggest gainers--up 81.1 percent. Other big positive movers: Procter & Gamble, up 53.1 percent; and Hyundai Corp., 22.6 percent higher.

Overall, 18 of the top 25 advertising categories spent less in broadcast in the quarter than a year ago. Governmental agencies were off 37.6 percent, beer and wine was down 25.4 percent, and telecommunications was 24.0 percent lower. Big gainers included: toiletries & cosmetics (up 17.9 percent), and insurance and real estate (14.8 percent more).