NEW YORK: U.S. television ad spending was up 4.5 percent to $72 billion last year, according to the third and final part of Nielsen’s Advertising & Audiences Report, released today. Nielsen said the report “took an in-depth look at media consumption by platform, and found that American advertisers and consumers have a huge appetite for television, as TV holds the lion’s share of ad dollars and consumers’ media time.” The $72 billion spent on TV advertising exceeded all other platforms combined, Nielsen said.
Overall, the amount of national TV ad units rose 14 percent from 2010 to 2011. Broken down, broadcast network TV raked in $21.1 billion last year, essentially flat with 2010. Cable was right behind with $21 billion. Spot TV generated $23 billion, down from its apex in 2008 of $25 billion. Syndie accounted for 3.3 percent of TV ad spending at $2.4 billion. Advertising on Spanish-language broadcast nets grew 16 percent to $3.7 billion. Spanish-language cable nets generated $513.3 million, up 24 percent from 2010.
The first and second part of the report looked at who was watching what in prime time. The third media platform portion of the report also included these nuggets:
~ The average TV commercial in 2011 was 28.4 seconds.
~ Automotive was the largest category for advertising spend across all media, with $10.2 billion spent by automotive brands in 2011, more than twice as much as the second-largest category—quick-service restaurants.
~ AT&T and Verizon were the top TV spenders during 2011 for brands AT&T Wireless Web Access at $1.1 billion, and Verizon Wireless Web Access at $702.2 million.
~ Spending on cable TV has increased steadily over the last few years, up 42 percent from 2007.
