Ad Spending on Internet Tops TV in UK

This is the first major market where online has overtaken television to become the biggest single medium.

- Guy Phillipson, head of the British the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB)

In Kate Holden, "UK Internet ad spend overtakes TV for first time," Reuters, September 30, 2009

The recession in the UK has caused a general advertising slump, and that has affected the growth of internet advertising there. Nevertheless, advertisers have continued to built their presence on the internet at a faster pace than in other media. "Spending on Internet advertising in Britain grew 4.6 percent in the first half of 2009, outperforming the wider ad sector, which slumped 17 percent, and making it the country's biggest ad medium ahead of TV." One consequence is that the internet has pulled ahead of television as the medium drawing the most advertising pounds.

According to the report from the UK's IAB, "ad spending on the Internet grew to 1.75 billion pounds, with the medium accounting for 23.5 percent of all spend, ahead of television for the first time." One commentator suggested that the shift to online reflects a belief that search advertising and other "clickable" ads show better than with traditional media how successful the ad spending has been. It will be important to see whether this trend continues when the recession ends.