UK advertising revenue has grown for the sixth consecutive year with 800 new or returning advertisers seen on screen during 2014.
Growth of 6% took revenues to a new record high of £4.91 billion, according to figures provided to Thinkbox by the UK commercial TV broadcasters.
The figure represents all spending by advertisers on commercial TV during 2014 on commercial TV, including linear spot and sponsorship, Broadcaster VOD, and product placement. TV advertising investment is forecast to grow again in 2015. The Advertising Association/Warc predicts TV ad revenue to grow by 5.5% in 2015.
Lindsey Clay, Thinkbox’s chief executive: “Confidence in TV advertising reflects its unrivalled ability to create business profit and sales. It is also a testament to the brilliant content invested in by the UK broadcasters and the unique qualities of TV as a medium. No other form of advertising can do what TV does. And, as TV viewing evolves to become more flexible for viewers, this is opening up new opportunities for brands to harness its power.”
A significant trend in TV advertising is the increasing investment from online brands and services, such as Amazon, Google and Netflix. Based on data from Nielsen, which details advertising investment, when online brands and services are grouped together they form the second biggest spending category on TV having doubled investment since 2010 to over £400 million.
65.8% of TV set viewing in 2014 was to commercial TV channels, meaning that the average person watched 2 hours 25 minutes of commercial TV a day.
Commercial impacts – the number of TV ads watched at normal speed – during 2014 decreased by 3.3% compared with 2013 but have grown by 27% over the last ten years. The average viewer watched 45 ads a day – 7 ads more a day than ten years ago. Collectively the UK watched an average of 2.65 billion ads a day in 2014.
