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While the media industry in the U.S. has struggled because it is now mature, worldwide it is booming, according to GroupM, a media and advertising firm.

The company sees global ad growth increasing by 7 percent in 2008, up from the 6 percent in 2007. Good news for advertisers is many countries that are driving that growth weren't considered worthwhile for marketing just a few years ago, giving opportunities to expand their businesses internationally.

Another important finding of the report is 5 percent of ad spending is expected to shift from developed nations to emerging economies. Author of the study, Adam Smith, says if that happens, it'll be the largest shift ever.

Leading the growth, unsurprisingly is China, which Smith says will account for 21 percent of the emerging markets ad spend. Other major emerging economies will be Russia and Brazil, which should account for about 6 percent of the shift each, and India, which will drive 3 percent of the shift.

For the U.S. ad spending is projected to increase by 3.7 percent in 2008, a little less than the recent report from ZenithOptimedia, which looks for 4.1 percent growth. Universal McCann's projections are about the same as GroupM's.

Globally the two media platforms that will drive growth are TV and the internet. Growth worldwide for television is expected to grow by 50 percent, while worldwide internet growth should come in at around 30 percent.

With the television industry in North America being mature for so long, it can sometimes come as a shock to realize that in emerging markets it's an extremely strong industry.
 
For the internet, it will increasingly gain share of ad budgets globally, making up about 10 percent in 2008. Smith added that he thinks search will increase share, reaching as high as 70 percent of the internet ad spend in 2008.

Those last numbers are somewhat surprising if they come about, as advertising placed against professional video is starting to explode. If those numbers hold, it could mean the entire online ad pie is expanding at a tremendous rate. That's definitely a possibility and probability.