• by Wayne Friedman , March 17, 2016

Amid overall double-digit percentage U.S. advertising spending gains for February, TV’s syndication, national cable and and local cable advertising sales posted healthy improvements for the month -- less so for broadcast TV.

Standard Media Index showed total TV advertising grew 5% in February versus the same period a year before -- this despite weak rating results for TV overall.

Syndication had the best gain during the month of any TV segment -- 15% higher; with national cable TV adding 11% and local cable advertising gaining 9%.

Broadcast network advertising and local TV broadcast posted overall weaker results -- national TV down 2% and spot TV advertising virtually flat, inching up 1%.

Breaking down national TV further, SMI says national cable benefited from strong near-term scatter market advertising buying -- soaring 21% in February over a year ago, while broadcast networks were down 2%.

Looking at the upfront piece of those national TV performances -- upfront deals made back in the summer of 2015 for the current 2015-2016 TV season -- cable TV was up 8%, while broadcast was down 2%.

According to media buying and selling executives, typically 75% of national broadcast networks and around 50% of national cable networks advertising comes from upfront advertising deals.

Total national TV upfront advertising was up 3%, with total national TV scatter advertising 11% higher.

Digital media grew 21% overall with strong activity in video (up 43%); social media (adding 49%); Internet radio (gaining 63%); and ad network/ad exchange business (28% higher).

Joining digital radio strong growth in the month was traditional radio, soaring 22% during the period. Out of home added 10%. Magazines and newspapers were on the losing end -- down 5% and 17%, respectively.

Overall, U.S. ad spend for February was up 10%.

SMI captures 80% of total national U.S. agency spend from the booking systems of five of the six global media holding groups, as well as leading independents. Group M is the one big media holding company that doesn’t participate in SMI’s data.