UK television ad spend tops £4bn

TV advertising spend in the UK grew 5.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2013, beating expectations as Britain’s “advertising bounce-back” continued.

According to a report by the Advertising Association and marketing information service Warc, overall ad spend increased by 2.4% in Q1 to £4.14 billion (US$6.17 billion).

Of this, £1.1 billion was spent on TV ad spots, up from £999.6 million for the same period a year earlier.

The rise follows a strong ad performance in 2012 when ad spend broke through the £17 billion barrier – the most spent since 2007, seeing the market return to “pre-recession levels.”

The Advertising Association/Warc Expenditure Report predicts that total ad spend will grow this year by 2.6% to £17.2 billion, of which £4.2 billion is tipped to go on TV ads – up from £4.116 billion last year.

“A pound spent on advertising returns six pounds to GDP. These figures don’t just reflect growing confidence, they represent an important investment in the recovery,” said Advertising Association CEO Tim Lefroy.