The “radicals” who envision an internet take-over of the entire advertising world have been telling us for years that TV was dying. But not only won’t it die — it just keeps getting better.

The radicals loved the idea of TiVo killing off all TV advertising. So we heard about it – endlessly. As a result, advertising agencies exerted tremendous angst re-structuring their lives without TV. And then, after more than a decade, it turns out TiVo has made TV advertising even more effective. (Link here.)

Now, news today in this MediaPost article (link here). Here’s a few high points…

Traditional TV ad spending has increased every year since 2009 and is projected to increase through 2013 (the last year projected).

TV’s shift is an outstanding increase for Cable (12%) and a small, but significant, decrease for broadcast (2%)

TV’s alter ego (online video advertising) will get 2 out of ever 5 dollars of local online ad spend – or somethint like that.

I’ll agree with anyone who wants to challenge me on the logic of “if advertisers are putting their money there it must be effective”. We need always be cautious of putting too much into these spending numbers. The last 10 years have been filled with advertising lemmings following other marketers into massive spending online just because it was the thing to do. (And, yes, online ads can be exactly the right choice in certain situations.)

But I think these TV numbers are a bit different because (a) TV is well established and therefore pretty well understood and (b) those of us in the TV business know that only TV can drive massive change quickly when you need communication.

So follow Apple’s lead. (And now Amazon’s.) When it’s right for you, TV builds your business like no other medium.

Copyright 2011 – Doug Garnett – All Rights Reserved