• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 6, 2007

Driven by severe cuts by the nation's largest advertisers, total U.S. ad spending declined 0.3%* during the first quarter of 2007, according to estimates released yesterday by TNS Media Intelligence.

TNS MI President/CEO Steven Fredericks attributes some of the fall-off to comparisons with a Winter Olympics-inflated ad marketplace during the first quarter of 2006, but acknowledges that "core growth rates have slowed further from last year's lackluster levels."

The lackluster nature of the U.S. ad marketplace was most evident among the biggest ad spenders, including No. 1 advertiser Procter & Gamble, which slashed its first-quarter spending by 8.6%, to $722.7 million, due to cutbacks in its healthy and beauty aid products. No. 2 advertiser AT&T dropped 19.2% despite an aggressive advertising effort behind its consolidation with Cingular, and No. 3 advertiser General Motors was off a whopping 30.9% (see table on front page).

Other big advertiser spending hits occurred among the studios, with Time Warner down 7.3% and Walt Disney Co. down 4.6%. In total, six of the top 10 advertisers were down, and the group as a whole has slashed ad spending 8% vs. the first quarter of 2006.

Other shifts were evident across the media mix, with TV declining 2.7%, due largely to a 7.2% drop in spending on the major broadcast networks. TV's erosion comes despite a 6.3% gain among cable networks, and a 3.7% rise among the Spanish-language networks. Spot TV was down 4.1%.

And while much of the decline could be attributed to year-over-year comparisons with 2006 Olympic spending, some significant share shifts appear to be taking place among the media. Not surprisingly, the Internet continues to surge.

TNS MI estimates that Internet display advertising soared 16.7%--to $2.7 billion--during the first quarter of 2007, and that estimate is likely conservative, as TNS MI does not currently track online search ad spending.

Radio and newspaper spending continues to erode, but consumer magazines demonstrated a strong rebound, rising 7.1% during the quarter on the strength of higher rate card pricing and a modest uptick in ad page volume.

As a result of these shifts, TV lost nearly a share point of U.S. ad spending, while the Internet gained more than a point and magazines gained a half a point. *Editor's note: This article was amended to correct and error. The decrease was 0.3% and not, as originally edited, 3%.