The advertising recession bites

I’ve been away for a couple of weeks, and the news on my return is just so much worse:

• ITV says September advertising bookings are down 20%
• The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising Bellwether Report says that advertising budgets have been cut for the third consecutive quarter, and the most recent cuts were the heaviest since 9/11.
• BSkyB said advertising would be down 7-8% in the second half
• Channel 4 said things were bad, but it was not suffering quite as badly as ITV.
• In the US, carmakers are slashing their advertising budgets, with their ad spend predicted to be only $15 billion, compared with $24 billion in 2004.

The one ray of hope is that the IPA say that Internet advertising is still growing, even if only just. But the overall impression is that advertising is in recession and this is only the beginning.