Internet Ad Spend to Surpass Radio in '08

ZenithOptimedia has revised its global ad spending outlook and now predicts that the internet will overtake radio as the fourth-largest advertising medium a year earlier than it previously expected.

In a major revision, the media-buying agency now predicts that online will grow six times faster than traditional media through 2009 and overtake radio in 2008, writes MediaPost (via MediaBuyerPlanner). Zenith forecasts that online advertising spend will increase its share of the global marketplace from 5.8 percent in 2006 to 8.7 percent in 2009.

Global spending on internet advertising increased from $18.7 billion in 2005 to $24.9 billion in 2006, according to ZenithOptimedia, writes the Times Online (U.K.).The internet already accounts for more than 10 percent of the ad market in Norway, Sweden and the U.K., the report points out.

The momentum of online ad spend reflects trends in the British market, in part as a result of the uptake of high-speed internet access. More than £2 billion was spent on internet advertising in 2006 in the U.K., where online advertising accounts for 11.4 percent of total advertising revenue - nearly double the global average of 5.8 per cent and above the U.S.'s 7.8 percent share of ad spend.

Zenith also predicts that TV's share of global ad spend will be down 0.2 percent in 2009 from 2005 levels. Newspapers are predicted to have no growth.

After online, cinema and outdoor media are the fastest-growing media, according to the report.