Wojcicki bases her claim on the results of a Google-commissioned Nielsen study of viewing data in 2015. It’s a controversial and important claim for marketers, as the 18-49 age group is the core target audience that advertisers want to reach through TV. Youtube and other online video sites have seen consistent growth in this audience over the past few years, particularly viewers under the age of 35.

In addition to Wojcicki’s claims, Google has launched several attacks on TV advertising recently. One example of this is Google’s session during Advertising Week Europe called “The (Entertainment) Revolution will not be Televised” where they claimed YouTube delivers a higher return on investment than TV in 77% of studies. There was also a more direct attack last year in October, where Google told advertisers that if they want to reach young audiences, they should be shifting 24% of their TV budgets over to YouTube.

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And it seems these attacks are working. In addition to many companies making steps to move budgets from TV to online video, Interpublic, one of the “big four” global advertising holding companies, will shift $250 million from TV ad budgets to YouTube.

Some have jumped to the defense of TV. Matt Hill, research and planning director at Thinkbox, a TV marketing body which counts ITV, Channel 4 and Sky among its members, has said that Google and YouTube’s analysis “misses the point” of TV advertising. He continued to point out that if brands’ plan to increase their spend on YouTube significantly, this may backfire because the bulk of viewing on the platform is by a relatively small audience, and that the majority of YouTube’s content is lower-value user-generated content which can’t compare to the top-quality TV programmes advertisers want to be associated with. This isn’t to say TV advertising doesn’t have its issues - the medium has been struggling to deal with viewers skipping through ad breaks since the inception of services like TiVO and Sky+, something which YouTube is able to combat more effectively at this time.

If TV advertising comprises a reasonable chunk of your budget, it is certainly worth investigating whether shifting some of your spend to online video is right for you, particularly if your target audience is in the 18-49 age group that is becoming less engaged with TV. However, despite the figures and arguments that paint a pessimistic picture of TV advertising, it is still a mainstream form of “lean back” media that brands can use to connect with audiences of all ages and social classes, so don’t expect TV to fall out of brands’ marketing mixes any time soon.

While many still regard it as one of the most effective advertising channels, TV needs to evolve in the next few years or face falling behind. As online video continues to impress with exponential growth and superior targeting, more budget will inevitably migrate towards it, so we’ll be watching to see how broadcasters respond with baited breath.