Because of anticipated record mid-term election campaign ad spending, Merrill Lynch late Wednesday upgraded its forecast for U.S. ad spending for the year, reports MediaPost. It also issued its first take on U.S. ad spend for 2007, forecasting 3.6 percent growth. Its revised forecast calls for 5.3 percent growth in ad spend for 2006; its previous estimate was 4.6 percent.

Merrill also upgraded its worldwide ad outlook to a growth rate of 5.1 percent rather than 4.8 percent; its 2007 projection is for 4.2 percent ad spending growth. In the U.S., it downgraded most traditional media for 2006: newspaper to -0.2 percent growth from 1.8 percent; radio, to 0.2 percent from 2.2 percent; broadcast TV to a 0.7 percent gain from 5.5 percent.

"Most other projections remained unchanged," according to the article. Presumably, some (including for internet) did increase, resulting in the 0.7 percent overall upgrade of Merril's previous forecast.