Merry Christmas From TVNewsCheck

Local broadcast television’s revenues were down 1.6% during the 1st quarter of 2008 compared to the same period a year before, a Television Bureau of Advertising analysis of TNS Media Intelligence/CMR’s estimates for the top 100 markets shows.

Syndicated television posted an 11.2% increase in revenues, and network television was up 1.7%. Combining those three components gave total broadcast television a 1.4% increase for the period.

One reason for the decrease was that local TV’s leading advertising category, automotive, was down 13%.

Among local broadcast television’s top 10 advertising categories, the picture was mixed. The lower automotive category was followed by No. 2 telecommunications, up 2.0%, No. 3 restaurants was down 3.8%, No. 4 car and truck dealers was down 3.6%, No. 5 furniture stores was down 5.0%, No. 6 insurance and real estate was up 21.1%, No. 7 government and organizations was up 48.9%, No. 8 financial was down 5.5%, No. 9 schools, colleges and camps was down 1.1%, and No. 10 leisure time activities and events was up 0.2%.

Among local broadcast television’s top 10 individual advertisers, the picture was also mixed. No. 1 Ford Motor Co Dealers Association was up 28.9%, No. 2 General Motors Corp Dealers Association was down 23.6%, No. 3 Toyota Motor Corp Dealers Association was down 9.0%, No. 4 Honda Motor Co Ltd was down 29.8%, No. 5 Chrysler-Cerberus was down 11.7%, No. 6 Toyota Motor Corp was up 4.7%, No 7 AT&T was down 28.8%, No. 8 Comcast Corp was up 45.5%, No. 9 McDonalds Corp. was up 9.4%, and No. 10 Time Warner Inc. was up 13.1%.

For the top 25 1Q local broadcast TV advertisers, click here.

For the top 25 1Q spot TV ad categories, click here.