All Blog Posts from Econwatch

In the United Kingdom, media consumers who want to avoid being overwhelmed by advertisements only need to turn on their televisions. TV, after all, isn't the major pipeline for exposing ads to British shoppers any more.

New figures from the first six months of 2009 show that advertising on the Web has overtaken TV ads in the U.K. and has become the largest medium for commercials, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal Wednesday.

Research from the Internet Advertising Bureau and Pricewaterhouse Coopers show that sales for Internet ads increased 4.6 percent from the first half of 2008 to $2.78 billion, earning the medium a market share of 23.5 percent. Sales of TV commercials declined 16.1 percent to $2.63 billion, reducing it to the No. 2 spot with a market share of 21.9 percent.

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If a little-known but influential alliance of state politicians, large retailers, and tax collectors has its way, the days of tax-free Internet shopping may be nearly over.

A bill expected to be introduced in Congress as early as Monday would rewrite the ground rules for mail order and Internet sales by eliminating what its supporters view as a "loophole" that, in many cases, allows Americans to shop over the Internet without paying sales taxes.

Currently, Americans who shop over the Internet from out-of-state vendors aren't always required to pay sales taxes at the time of purchase. Californians buying books from Amazon.com or cameras from Manhattan's B&H Photo, for example, won't pay sales taxes at checkout time that they would if shopping at a local mall.

"We will have the bill ready for introduction by next Monday," said Neal Osten of the National Conference of State Legislatures. "We finalized the language and now we're working out the remaining issues and adding some new provisions at the request of various stakeholders."

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