According to Nielsen, advertising spending in the first half of 2009 dropped by $10.3 billion to $56.9 billion. Cable TV was the only medium to show growth; ad spending on cable was up 1.5%. But Nielsen credited cable's boost to the industry's own advertising leading up to June's transition to digital television. The biggest decliner among TV advertising categories was local spot TV in the smaller markets (DMAs 101-210), down 32.1%. Spot TV in the top 100 markets was down 17.4%. Automotive saw the biggest drop of any ad category in the top 10 spenders, with factory and dealer associations down 31.4% to $3.68 billion and dealerships down 26.2% to $1.69 billion.
