Total television ad revenues for 2009 totaled at $81.9 billion - down six percent from year ago. Cable’s share of total television ad revenue continued to climb; up four points to a 29 share whereas Broadcast fell three points to a 36 share.

Breaking the TV total into its component parts, Spot TV and Syndicated TV were both down 16%; Broadcast fell 11% and Spanish Broadcast declined 7%. At the local level - TV suffered from a drop in political dollars in comparison with the spending last year leading up to the 2008 presidential election. In contrast to Broadcasts’ decline, Spanish Cable and National Cable were the lone gainers in 2009 - up 26% and 15%, respectively.

Looking at a broader scale across all media, National Cable and FSI Coupon were the only mediums to experience ad revenue increases this year. Quite the reverse for Local Sunday Supplement with revenue cut in half followed by Local Magazine with a 24% decline. Along with Broadcast TV, National Magazine experienced the greatest loss from year ago. Quintessentially, total ad revenue (excluding Internet for this analysis) totaled $119 billion this year – down $11 billion from year ago.

Media, Retail and Auto/Accessories rounded out the top three TV categories for 2009. Media and Auto decreased there spending whereas Retail’s revenue grew $65 million. Out of the Top 10 Categories, only four increased their spending in 2009 - (Retail, Financial, Food and Ins/Real Estate).

In fact, more than two thirds of the categories (69%) cut their TV budgets in 2009 v. year ago with Auto category leading the decline at a $2.2 billion loss. In contrast, Electronic Equip/Supplies experienced the largest growth, up $289 million followed closely by Food which is up $199 million.

Looking at Cable specifically, sixty-five percent (24 out of 37) of all categories increased their Cable spending in 2009. The top gainers in 2009 were Media with a $675 million increase; Retail with $387 million growth and Financial with $375 million gain v. year ago.

Out of Cable’s Top 15 Advertisers for 2009, thirteen were up v. year ago. In fact, seventy-six percent (3,496 out of total 4620) of all cable advertisers increased their spending in 2009. Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart Stores Inc were the top two advertisers to increase their cable spending – with an influx of $188 million and $144 million more, respectively, this year.