Analysts have warned that the U.S. advertising recession is spreading from newspaper and radio to other media and casting a shadow this year, even though it should have benefited from the Beijing Olympics and the election season, FT.com reported Monday.

Many big advertisers include car dealers, banks, retailers and airlines, and others have cut their marketing budgets, which poses a huge threat to the industry.

“What we've got here is a recession in advertising. It started in local media – radio and newspapers – and is now spreading to TV,” according to Larry Haverty, portfolio manager at GAMCO Investors.

The latest red flags reported include Coca-Cola and General Motors, which planned to cut marketing budgets as parts of the cost-saving plans.

The slowing economy is clouding U.S. media companies when some are seeing their businesses strained by new technologies and digital distribution, FT.com reported.

Viacom and CBS will report its second quarter results this week, which can clearly show how seriously media groups were damaged.

Analysts said that due to its strong reliance on traditional television and radio advertising, CBS is quite sensitive. Its shares have dropped more than 30 percent so far this year, according to FT.com.

On the other hand, companies operating cable networks, including Walt Disney, News Corp. and Time Warner, should be less harmed because they can also monetise from subscription revenue, as well as advertising.

According to analysts, although media companies have successfully launched some digital initiatives, revenues from those areas hardly compensate for losses in the traditional businesses, FT.com reported.

Michael Nathanson, analyst at Sanford Bernstein, said digital “was not big enough accounting for about 3 percent of the industry's revenues.”

The media industry has not endured a consumer-led slowdown since 1991, prior to high-speed Internet access, music and video downloads and social networking, according to FT.com.