PricewaterhouseCoopers: Internet Advertising Will Overtake Broadcast Advertising in the U.S. Next Year

Although TV advertising will remain strong as the industry evolves over the next five years, Internet advertising will overtake broadcast advertising in the US in 2017. That is the finding from PricewaterhouseCooper's annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report, the company's five-year economic forecast for media and entertainment industry revenue and ad spending.

PwC forecasts that entertainment and media spending will hit $720 billion by 2020, up from $603 billion in 2015. US TV advertising revenue is expected to rise from $69.9 billion to $81.7 billion in 2020, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.2 percent. Internet advertising, meanwhile, brought in $59.6 billion in revenue in 2015, and that number is projected to rise to $93.5 billion by 2020 (9.4 percent CAGR). PwC forecasts that internet advertising will overtake broadcast TV advertising for the first time in 2017. The biggest advertising gains are expected in mobile advertising, which was responsible for 34.7 percent of total Internet ad revenue in 2015 at $20.7 billion and is projected to rise to 49.4 percent by 2020.