National business rebound continues, says Katz

Halfway through the first quarter, the first three months of 2010 appear to promise a gain of nearly 20%, on the back of a strong 26% year-to-year gain for January. Katz Media CEO Stu Olds says February is pacing at an 11% gain and March appears to be about 13% ahead of the comparable month in 2009. Katz admits that “the 2009 comparisons are favorable”, because early 2009 was a trough, especially for critical categories such as automotive. But now Katz says that auto is pacing up about 35%. Also up more than 30% for first quarter: Entertainment and Consumer Products. Telecom and Professional Services are going to be ahead 20% or so. Even Finance and Retail are pacing ahead more than 7%. Every region of the country is up double digits, and most market sizes are also up double digits, led by the top 10 markets (+26%). In normal times, national ad business comprises 10-20% of many stations' revenues, and more than that for the largest markets.

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