Nielsen: Ad Spending Up 4.5% Through 3Q

By Joel Meyer -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/1/2005 11:40:00 AM

Advertising spending through the third quarter of 2005 rose 4.5% compared to the same period last year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. The increase was helped by growth in most media sectors, including sharp year-to-year gains in Internet (19.4%), Spanish-language TV (16.7%) and cable TV (11.9%).

Network TV experienced a year-to-year decline (-3.5%) due to the absence of the Olympics in the third quarter, though the category had showed positive growth through the first half of the year.

Spot TV posted modest increases. In the top 100 markets, spot TV grew 2.5%, while markets Nos. 101-210 grew just 1.6%.

Nielsen also tracked product placement in TV programs for the first three quarters of 2005.

NBC’s boxing reality show, The Contender, had by far the highest number of product-placement occurrences: 7,514, many of them for sporting apparel. The No. 2 show, American Idol, had 3,497, with many occurrences for Coca-Cola. The top 10 shows for product placement are as follows: