BT, which has challenged Sky with its BT Sport channel, was the third-biggest spender at £159m, down 2%.
The run-up to the football season saw a marketing blitz by the rivals. Sky promoted its offering with a spot starring David Beckham while BT rolled out co-branded ads with recent acquisition EE highlighting how the mobile network’s customers could have free access to live matches on the go.
Procter & Gamble retained second place in the table with a combined adspend across its health and beauty and household brands of £224m, up 28%. However, Unilever’s adspend was down by almost a quarter.
Supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda and Lidl also reduced spend.
In contrast, Amazon entered the top 20 spenders in 2016 with a leap from £52m to £101m.
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