US marketers spent $68.3 billion on TV ads in 2006, compared with only $16.5 billion on online ads, according to JupiterResearch's "Media Consumption Patterns: Online Vies with TV as Primary Medium" report, cited in Internet Retailer.
Online consumers now spend about as much time on the Web as they do watching TV. Both TV viewing and online use were up over the past five years. Consumers spent a median average of about 14 hours per week each on TV and the Internet.
Although those ages 18 to 24 spent about twice as much time online as they did watching TV, the report stated that the Web is not the best way to reach all young audiences. Teens actually spent more time watching TV (10 hours per week as a median) than they did online (eight hours).