• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, October 28, 2024

The U.S. advertising market expanded at double-digit rates for the third consecutive month in September, which importantly was not an Olympic month.

September ad spending increased 10.1% over the same month a year ago, and while it decelerated from July's 14.2% and August's 12.1% expansion, both those months included incremental ad spending from advertisers on NBCUniversal's coverage of the Paris Olympic Games.

Even the national TV advertising marketplace managed to hold on to some post-Olympics momentum, expanding 1.5% in September vs. the same month a year ago, according to MediaPost's analysis of data from Guideline's U.S. Ad Market Tracker.

Smaller ad categories continue to lead the expansion, rising 12.8% over September 2023, vs. the top 10 ad categories' 8.1% gains.