Partly as a result of a fourth-quarter slowdown, ad spend grew a modest 3 percent in 2005, totaling $143.3 billion, reports AdWeek, citing numbers from TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks spending across 19 media segments. Once again the internet segment underwent the greatest year-over-year growth: 13.3 percent, to $8.3 billion. Cable TV was up 11.4 percent to $15.8 billion; outdoor was up 9.8, percent to $3.5 billion. Network TV, spot TV, national spot radio and network radio ad spend decreased.

Spending among the top 10 U.S. advertisers dropped 3.3 percent, to $18.6 billion, year over year. Eight of them cut budgets, including Procter & Gamble, which spent $3.2 billion last year, a decline of 4.6 percent. Others cutting budgets included AT&T, DaimlerChrysler, Walt Disney, Johnson & Johnson and Sprint Nextel.

Newspaper ad dollars increased only 1 percent, to $25 billion, but the segment remained the largest billing medium, followed by network TV and consumer magazines.

TNS recently forecast that 2006 ad spend would increase 5.4 percent, to $152 billion.