Online advertising spend will grow faster in Canada than anywhere in the world over the next four years, according to a heavyweight new PricewaterhouseCoopers report.
PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook, which looks at the international media industry between 2007 and 2011, forecast the amount of money advertisers spend online will grow to US$2.03bn (£1.02bn) by 2011.
The growth is attributed to an increasing number of broadband internet connections.
“We have had higher broadband penetration rates than other countries around the world … and we’re now seeing a bigger shift in advertising revenue,” PwC’s Tracey Jennings told the Toronto Globe and Mail.
Canada’s net ads growth rate will average out at 23.5% annually over the four years, beating America’s forecast 16.1% growth.
But internet ad spend in the US will reach US$78.4bn, PwC found, up from US$47.2bn in 2006. Broadband growth will also drive advertising increases in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the firm said.
But Britain’s internet advertising spend is already double that which PwC reckons Canda will clock up by 2011.
In the UK in 2006, internet advertising spend surpassed that allocated to newspapers when it reached £2bn (US$4bn), according to the Internet Advertising Bureau.