• by Erik Sass , July 14, 2008

Advertising revenue for Spanish-language media totaled $5.78 billion last year, representing a 3% increase over 2006, when it reached $5.63 billion, according to Nielsen Monitor Plus. While anemic compared to the 14.4% increase in Spanish-language ad spending from 2005-2006, the 3% figure looks positively healthy compared to the U.S. ad industry overall, where revenues crept up just 0.6% in 2007, also according to Nielsen.

Leading the pack was Spanish-language cable TV, up 76% -- but that's due, at least in part, to the fact that Nielsen began measuring Fox Sports en Espanol and Telemundo's mun2 in 2007. Spanish TV networks, like Univision, experience more modest growth of 2%, to just over $3 billion. Also doing well were national Spanish-language magazines, which rose 13% to $163.4 million.

There's an important distinction between Spanish-language advertising and English-language ads that target Hispanics. For the most part, advertisers try to address Hispanic consumers in the language they're most comfortable speaking. However, there is also significant overlap, with a large proportion of Hispanics equally versed in both English and Spanish, meaning they can be reached via either one.

Broadcasting Media Partners, parent company of Univision Communications, was the largest advertiser across all Spanish-language media in 2007.

Some Spanish-language media seemed to parallel the mainstream media in 2007, although they fared somewhat better than their mainstream counterparts. For example, local newspaper ad spending showed no growth, at $110 million -- but that looks rosy compared to newspapers at large, which tumbled 9.4% to $42.2 billion.

Spot radio dropped 20% to $609.2 million -- but that was due, in part, to a change in Nielsen's coverage, not necessarily a reflection of actual revenue declines.