Advertising spending for the first quarter of 2007 in the US was down 0.6 percent compared with the first quarter of 2006, with gains in some media categories and declines in others, according to preliminary figures released last week by Nielsen Monitor-Plus, reports MarketingCharts.

Internet advertising expenditures continue to grow steadily, with an increase of 31.9 percent in the first three months. National Magazines (6.5 percent), Spanish-Language Television (4.0 percent) and Spot TV Markets 101-210 (4.1 percent) also reported growth, while Network TV dropped by 8.5 percent, Nielsen reported.

"Last year's Torino Olympics in February 2006 contributed to a higher than typical first quarter, resulting in a decline in TV ad spend for Q1 2007. If you removed the Olympics ad spend from the Network numbers last year, those numbers would actually be up this quarter," said Brian Lane, SVP of client strategy and product development for Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

Additional data and tables issued by Nielsen Monitor-Plus are available at MarketingCharts.