The rate of growth of advertising spending may have flattened in the second quarter of 2006, but that growth continues to be fueled by dramatic increase in Spanish-language advertising and in Internet advertising, according to a release from TNS Media Intelligence this week.
Advertising spending in the second quarter of 2006 jumped 2.9 percent, after a 5.3 percent gain the first quarter of 2006. According to experts, the first quarter was an anomaly, with traditional television advertising being boosted by the Winter Olympics and the World Cup, among other events, that skewed numbers, leaving the second quarter of 2006 being viewed as the more stable and important number to compare to for the future, although political advertising will also be skewing numbers in the future.
Spanish-language advertising in the first half of 2006 raised by more than a fifth, jumping 20.5 percent in the second quarter to a total of $2.4 billion, while Internet display advertising rose 18.9 percent, to a total of $4.69 billion.
While network television advertising's revenue is much greater, at $12.3 billion, the growth rate has remained flat, and TNS said that, excluding the month that the Olympics were broadcast, the ad growth for 2006 for network TV would only be 1.2 percent.
Back in July, I wrote about the same two sectors of advertising driving the growth rate for the first quarter, and it seems that driving into Spanish-language content and online distribution continues to gain in profit, while the numbers for traditional advertising in traditional media are leveling off.
Now, I start with the assumption that I'm clueless and not that TNS doesn't know their business. But... Wouldn't every section of the fiscal year be skewed by one major event or another? In the first half of the year you had the NFL playoffs, the Olympics and the World Cup. Then at intermission you're likely to reach a radical low as there's very little new programming on the air. And then in the second half you'll have the baseball playoffs which, much like the Olympics on NBC, knock out almost a full month of FOX's programming. And with the debuts of new series increasingly staggered throughout the year isn't there apt to be a lot of irregularity from week to week much less month to month? I'd imagine the difference in ad values would be skewed by American Idol alone.
I think you've got a point, Henry, in that there are always special events, etc. But I think they specifically meant that, in comparing the first quarter of this year to the second, that the Olympics skewed things when making the first quarter look stronger than the second. The difference is that the Olympics, from my understanding, draw in phenomenal advertising ratings, since they are believed to appeal to a much higher-end consumer than most other programming. It's the reason why WWE is replaced by the Westminster Dog Show and the U.S. Open every year on the USA Network: wrestling may draw many times more than the ratings those two programs will pull in, but advertisers pay far more for much lower ratings on tennis tournaments and dog shows than they do wrestling because of the perception that the tennis and dog viewers are worth more as consumers.