Television could be celebrating the Internet, instead of demonizing it

Contrary to what a lot of people have been saying in the past years, according to a report made by PwC on Adspend in the UK in 2008 - just before Internet Advertising actually does overcome TV Advertising in mid 2009 - Online Advertising has not been growing at the expense of TV, nor it has been really bringing market growth.

The slide and their reports show that up until H1 2008 - hence right before the recession - TV Advertising and overall Advertising pretty much stay in the same level of numeric income, considering seasonal and economic fluctuations, even with the amazing growth of Internet revenues.

With the recession TV Advertising then drops significantly. In the UK alone by the end of 2009 TV had lost 16% of its revenues, which ultimately affected the Advertising industry as whole, when the total UK Advertising spend fell by 12% in 2009, the biggest fall since measurement began in 1982. It has however now in the start of 2010 begun rise back, and fast.

During that same period (2003 to 2008), when Internet Advertising grew something like 2,200%, TV audience actually dropped almost in half, especially with youngsters below 24 years old who are watching 46% less TV than before.

But that didn't seem to affect their cash flow which stayed around the 4 billion pounds. The overall advertising market, according to the report, kept around the 17 billion:

Year	Total Revenues	Online revenues	TV revenues
2003	£17.0bn	£407m	£4.4bn
2004	£16.7bn	£653m	£4.6bn
2005	£17.9bn	£1.36bn	£4.82bn
2006	£17.7bn	£2.01bn	£4.6bn
2007	£18.4bn	£2.81bn	£4.01bn
2008	£17.7bn	£3.35bn	£4.07bn

Which can quite possibly mean that the Internet can "steal" audience from Television but not quite its money, which is surprising. It could also mean, on the other hand, that TV could quite easily be stealing Internet's money, since Advertisers love them that much.

Well, technically it would still be Internet's money, but if TV executives had engaged in proper online content distribution, including video and building communities around it - and not simply putting up an iPlayer online - a big part of those £3bn+ Internet companies are making (which were pretty much up for grabs) could be already coming into their pockets.