AT&T Ad Solutions Down 17% YTD

It’s Yellow Pages earnings season again. AT&T is usually among the first out with its results, and the latest numbers show a worsening picture for its Advertising Solutions business, which includes print Yellow Pages and yp.com. The results are compounded by very modest growth in Internet revenues, an area that AT&T is counting on to stabilize the AS business.

Advertising Solutions’ third-quarter results, posted today, show that through nine months, revenues dropped 16.9 percent, from US$3.6 billion to US$3.0 billion. For the third quarter, results were down 17.3 percent over the prior year. This represents an acceleration of last year’s pace, when overall results decreased 11.8 percent for the nine months ended Sept. 30.

AT&T’s Internet revenues grew a modest 5.8 percent in Q3 to US$239 million. At this time last year, AT&T posted a 20.7 percent Q3 2009 online growth rate.