As more and more content shifts online, advertising spending is going with it, according to a new forecast from eMarketer.
In its latest forecast, eMarketer estimates mobile will top TV ad spending by $6 billion this year, accounting for $76.17 billion of media ad spending in the United States (compared to $69.87 billion for TV ad spending).
By 2020 the mobile channel is expected to hit $113.21, representing 43 percent of total media ad spending, and surpassing all traditional media combined.
“Even the strongholds of TV, such as live sports and news, are starting to move online, and people are consuming them on the go through mobile devices,” says Martín Utreras, vice president of forecasting at eMarketer, in a statement. “Audiences continue to abandon traditional media, and ad dollars follow.”
The gap between the two is expected to widen significantly by 2022, when the firm predicts mobile ad spending will account for $141.36 billion of media ad spending in the country and TV will be down slightly to $68.13 billion.
“At the same time, we increased growth for mobile, as companies like Facebook and Google are still driving double-digit growth,” Utreras says. “Part of that is driven, of course, by digital video growth coming from platforms like YouTube and Facebook.”
While the digital advertising sales arena is currently dominated by Facebook and Google, AT&T has been trying to gain a foothold. Earlier this year the company purchased ad-tech firm AppNexus for a reported $1.6 billion, and recently unveiled the new name for its advertising and analytics business, Xandr.