A trio of ad spending forecasts from leading industry prognosticators hit the wires Monday morning and while they differ on the numbers, all agree that the trend for 2003 is a positive one.

Bob Coen, director of forecasting for Interpublic's (IPG: news, chart, profile) Universal McCann media buying unit, was the cheeriest as he predicted that ad spending would grow 5 percent next year, nearly double the 2.6 percent rise he expects to see when all is said and done in 2002. Speaking at a UBS media conference, Coen said that the outlook for the ad market is stronger amid an overall recovery and that he is more optimistic than he was a year ago.

Meanwhile, Zenith Optimedia, a joint venture of Publicis (PUB: news, chart, profile) and Cordiant (CDA: news, chart, profile), is looking for a global rise in media spending of 2.9 percent, with the U.S. somewhat quicker to recover than Europe.

Finally, ad-tracker Jack Myers sees a 2.8 percent rise, up from 2.5 percent this year but down a smidge from his July estimate of 3 percent growth next year.

"As we head into 2003, a strong first half for advertising-dependent media companies is virtually assured," Myers wrote Monday in his newsletter. "Based on the strong broadcast network upfront market, growth in broadcast and cable network spending can be reliably forecast through the first three quarters. Cable television networks experienced declines of 2 percent in first half 2002 spending, but reversed the trend in the second half and had an especially strong fourth quarter. These high single digit growth rates will continue throughout most, if not all, of 2003."

Investors weren't buying the recovery -- or at least not yet -- as shares of companies with big national broadcast operations slipped. Viacom(VIA: news, chart, profile), owner of CBS and a significant shareholder in the publisher of this report, gave up 1 percent to $44.66; ABC proprietor Disney (DIS: news, chart, profile) nudged down 2 cents to $17.15; and both News Corp.(NWS: news, chart, profile) and its Fox (FOX: news, chart, profile) unit were down, 11 cents to $27.04 and 1 percent to $25.54, respectively.

General Electric (GE: news, chart, profile), parent of NBC was off 1.4 percent to $25.68.

The ad agency groups weren't doing any batter as Interpublic was slapped down almost 4 percent to $13.89 while archrival Omnicom Group (OMC: news, chart, profile) lost 1.1 percent to $67.13. London-based WPP Group (WPPGY: news, chart, profile) slipped almost 3 percent to $38.06 and Publicis gave up 1.6 percent to $22.88.

Shares of Vivendi Universal(V: news, chart, profile), locked in a dispute with USA Interactive over who should be on the hook for some $620 million in tax payments, gave up 3.5 percent to $15.65. USA Interactive, meanwhile, added 16 cents to $26.10.

Meanwhile, over in movie-land, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's (MGM: news, chart, profile) latest James Bond film "Die Another Day," shot back to the top of the box office, regaining the No 1., spot it relinquished to AOL Time Warner's (AOL: news, chart, profile) "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" last week.

Shares of MGM were down 3 cents to $13.22 while AOL, which has problems completely unrelated to the pre-pubescent wizard's box office fall, gave up 2.5 percent to $13.65,