This marks the sixth consecutive year that TV ad revenue has grown and marks the largest increase since the end of the recession.

This total covers all the money invested by advertisers in commercial TV including linear spot and sponsorship, broadcaster video-on-demand and product placement.

There has been significant growth from online companies according to Nielsen data on category spend – online businesses spent more than £500m in TV in 2015 (up 14% on 2014 ). Google, Facebook and Netflix spend more than 60% of their marketing budgets on TV advertising.

But more traditional categories also increased spend: motor was up 18% to £318m; finance up 17% to £428m and FMCG up 14% to £199m.

There were 877 new or returning (after an absence of five years or more) advertisers on TV in 2015. Newcomers included Facebook which was the biggest spender with £10.8m according to Nielsen.

Lindsey Clay, chief executive, Thinkbox: “TV advertising works, it works better than anything else, and it works for all budgets. Nothing else has TV’s reach, scale and connection with audiences; no other form of advertising is as trusted. Online businesses in particular recognise the impact TV advertising has and have significantly increased their investment recently. This is something we expect to continue in 2016.”