Internet Ad Spending Overtakes TV in the UK

This is exciting. According to a report from the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, a record £1.75 billion was spent online in the first half of 2009.

The internet now accounts for 23.5% of all advertising money spent in the UK, while TV ad spend accounts for 21.9% of marketing budgets. The IAB originally predicted that internet ad spend would overtake TV at the end of 2009; however, the crippling advertising recession accelerated this by six months. TV advertising fell about 17% year on year in the first half, to about £1.6bn, according to the report.

Naturally, we see some push-back from the TV industry.

“It is interesting but meaningless to sweep all the money spent on every aspect of online marketing into one big figure and celebrate it,” said Lindsey Clay, marketing director at Thinkbox. “Online marketing spend is made up of many things, including email, classified ads, display ads (including online TV advertising) and, overwhelmingly, search marketing. They should be judged individually.”

I suspect few interactive marketers will agree — especially when they’re credited with saving the UK ad industry from meltdown during the recession. (Via The Guardian)