Internet ads poised to top TV within seven years

PricewaterhouseCoopers' new Entertainment and Media Outlook report that predicts revenue through 2018 has claimed that television's decades-long dominance of advertising is poised to give way to the Internet within seven years.

PwC's 15th annual report reveals that TV advertising will generate 173.7 billion dollars worldwide in 2014 and grow to 214.7 billion dollars in 2018, according to Hollywood Reporter.

During the same period, Internet advertising will grow from 133 billion dollars to 194.5 billion dollars.

PwC does not prognosticate beyond five years, but its research indicates a 5.5 percent compound annual growth rate for TV advertising compared with 10.7 percent for the Internet, suggesting the latter will pass the former as early as 2020 -- marking a sea change that will come about fairly quickly. As recently as 2010, revenue from TV advertising was more than twice that from Web ads.

For the entire "E and M" industry-including film, TV, music, Internet, video games, advertising, print and outdoor-PwC predicts worldwide revenue of 1.87 trillion dollars in 2014, growing to 2.27 trillion dollars in 2018.