Kantar Media has released its report on total U.S. advertising expenditures in the second quarter of 2012, finding that overall spending grew by 0.9 percent. Total U.S. ad spending totaled $34.4 billion. For the first half of 2012, total spending was up 1.9 percent to $67.1 billion.

"Ad spending growth sputtered during the second quarter and was unable to sustain its early year momentum," said Jon Swallen, Chief Research Officer at Kantar Media North America. "The advertising market is mirroring the tepid, slow growth performance of the general economy. Third quarter results will get a short-term boost from the Summer Olympics and political advertising but sustained long-term improvement will probably be linked to the health of consumer spending on the goods and services that marketers provide."

Radio ad spending was up in Q2 compared to a year ago, with a 1.9 percent increase. Local radio ad spending grew by 0.6 percent compared to Q2 2011, with Network Radio up by an impressive 20 percent. However, Kantar notes this number was inflated by the addition of more programming into its monitoring. National Spot Radio fell by three percent.

Along with Radio, Television ad spending saw a 4.4 percent growth and Outdoor advertising was up by 2.5 percent. Magazine, Newspaper and Internet advertising all saw declines in ad spending in Q2 2012.