According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment & Media Outlook, the consumer and advertising spending, will grow by 2.7% compounded annually for the entire forecast period (2009-2013) to $1.6 trillion in 2013.  A 3.9% drop is expected in 2009 and a 0.4% advance in 2010, with a period of much faster growth during the remaining period to 7.1% in 2013. The forecast anticipates that the impact of the recession on consumer spending will last longer and be steeper than previous ones due to a steeper downturn. Consumer spending in E&M will fall by a projected 1.2% in 2009, remaining weak in 2010 and seeing only relatively low growth at 3.2% in 2011.

Given GM and Chrysler's troubles, a decline would be expected -- but the speed is nonetheless jarring. Spot dollars for the auto category plunged 52% for the January-March period compared to a year ago, down $364 million.

In the local TV station business, one-third of revenues might come from the category. And total spot dollars (local and national) for the top-100 markets dropped 28% for the January-March period (to $2.9 billion), according to the Television Bureau of Advertising.

One contributing factor: the first quarter did not have an Olympic Games or a presidential race to help generate revenues, as it had a year ago.

This week brought more deals to increase the distribution and reach of digital newspaper properties. A new affiliate partnership between QuadrantOne and Politico increases the online reach of the newspaper network and new digital mobile editions introduced by USA Today.

The affiliate partnership between Politico and QuadrantOne will give advertisers that use the network access to roughly 6 million unique visitors per month, along with the combined audience of about 39 million unique visitors for the other roughly 340 sites in the network.

According to comScore, more than 10 billion video clips are viewed online every month -- providing companies big and small with an incredible opportunity for cost-effective branding, product display and demonstration.   Ironically, the ability to incorporate streaming video into an email campaign was practiced in the early days of the commercial Internet, yet stymied when inbox providers and software developers started blocking javascript in email for obvious security reasons.   With cutting-edge video technologies now available and the pent-up demand for video integration with email from both marketers and consumers, inbox providers are heeding the call by developing new programs for marketers to tinker with email video delivery.