Media Healthcheck: September 2009
As the last embers of summer faded away, data from The Nielsen Company revealed that US advertising for the first six months of the year was down 15.4% year on year.
The figures, published at the start of September, showed that US adspend declined by over $10.3 billion to a total of $56.9 billion in the first two quarters.
Jack Myers, meanwhile, reported that this year will be the first year that US ad spending online is greater than local and national spot TV.
Online expenditure is expected to rise from 10.6% of the total in 2008 to 12.2% this year, with the rise occurring despite a predicted 0.5% fall in online adspend to $24.5 billion in 2009.
Globally, internet advertising will account for about 15% ($64.7 billion) of global measured adspend in 2010, up from an expected 13% this year, according to GroupM
However, display spending is expected to have a 34% share of online advertising in 2010, down from 35% in 2009. Elsewhere, search is expected to hit 43% in 2010, up from 38% in 2006.
What are people doing when they go online? In the US at least, they are increasingly watching TV via the internet, with nearly one in four households doing this, up from 20% last year, according to The Conference Board and TNS.
TNS also found that Hulu.com is catching up with YouTube as one of the most popular sites for watching TV programmes online, with the number of households visiting Hulu.com increasing almost fourfold in the past year.
Online video is also making waves in the UK, with research from Web TV Enterprises predicting that UK media buyers will increase their online video advertising budgetsby 50% over the next 12 months.
The Online Video Advertising Buyers’ Guide – the first bi-annual report from Web TV Enterprise – surveyed 101 media buyers booking pre-roll advertising campaigns and found that almost all (97%) were planning on either maintaining or increasing video advertising spend.
And while it might seem that the internet is happily hammering nails in TV’s coffin, a forecast from chip manufacturer Intel in September predicted a bright future for TV.
Speaking at Intel’s Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner said that “TV will remain at the centre of our lives and you will be able to watch what you want where you want”.
He added: “We are talking about more than one TV-capable device for every man and woman on the planet. People are going to feel connected to the screen in ways they haven’t in the past.”