UK cinema advertising revenues plunged last year as major advertisers pulled out of the sector completely or scaled back dramatically, according to new figures from monitoring service ACNielsen MMS.

UK exhibitors took $116m for the period January to November 2000, down from $125.8m for the same period in 1999. The rare downturn represents a 7.8% loss in income for exhibitors.

According to AC Nielsen MMS, the decline in cinema advertising comes against a backdrop of advertisers shifting advertising spend into new media such as digital TV and the internet. Advertisers are also spending more money on sponsorship.

Major advertisers cutting back completely included mobile telephone service BT Cellnet, which reduced its $4.5m cinema spend during January to November 1999 to zero. Ford also cut its spend from $3.9m to zero.

Mars and Peugot each spent $2.9m less in the period. Other advertisers to have cut expenditure by more than $1.5m include Birds Eye Walls, the Central Office of Information, Bacardi Martini, the BBC, Thomson Tour Operators and Walkers Snack Foods.

The downturn comes despite a box office boom at UK cinemas in 2000 - cinema attendance is expected to reach 143 million for the year, the highest number since 1974.

However, the Cinema Advertising Association was swift to challenge the figures. A CAA spokesperson commented: "The CAA are disputing the figures because they miss out two big pieces of revenue." She declined to reveal further details.

The challenge was rejected by ACNielsen MMS. A spokesperson for the company said: "ACNielsen MMS sources its data on cinema advertising from the cinema industry, and we are confident that we have highlighted a recent downward trend in the level of cinema advertising."