MUMBAI: National TV sports in the US generated $10.9 billion in advertising expenditure last year, compared to $10.3 billion one year prior, according to Nielsen’s State of the Media: Year in Sports.

Measuring ad spend during sporting events on network and cable TV from Q4 2010 through Q3 2011, Nielsen also saw that cable has an increasing share of those ad dollars—growing 37.3 per cent year over year compared to 5.9 per cent for sports ad spending in general.

TV sports advertising is dominated by a few big spenders, with the top 10 led by AT&T, Bud Light, Verizon Wireless, McDonald’s and DirecTV—accounting for roughly a quarter (26 per cent) of the total spend during that time period.

The increase in TV ad spend mirrors a similar increase in the amount of live TV sports content available on TV and cable. There were more than 42,500 hours of live sporting events on national broadcast and cable TV in 2011, a five per cent increase over 2010.