Ad Infinitum?

Yes, the US Internet’s 11.3% YOY growth in ad rev during the year’s 1st half bears noting, particularly as the movement of myriad cable content to online locales underscores the platform’s increasing importance. But cable TV achieved a greater rise (+13%) in ad rev during the period, and industry ops and programmers themselves are contributing to the expansion of Web advertising by marketing their own brands or stoking income for their own online initiatives. Together, the telecom (multichannel ops, mobile comm etc) and media (TV, films etc) sectors accounted for 18% of overall Internet ad spending from Jan-June, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers data, with telecom’s spending ranking behind retail only. As shown in the below chart, the telecom spend did dip YOY during the period, but it still ranked ahead of heavyweight sectors including automotive and financial services. Search ads, meanwhile, are still the dominant Internet ad type (see below), although the only types to achieve YOY growth during the year’s 1st half were display/banner and rich media.