Advertisers will spend more than US$400 million (£208 million) on television commercials in China during the Olympics, which is expected to push the Asian economy closer to becoming the second largest ad market worldwide by 2010, according to Group M's forecast published Monday.

The Beijing Olympics will be a main driver to the annual ad spending growth in China by 22 percent this year, to $35 billion. According to Group M, TV and the Internet are the main contributors of ad growth in the country, the Guardian reported.

Group M predicted that the Olympics would bring in $400 million in spending on CCTV, the nationwide broadcaster owning the exclusive domestic rights to broadcast the game, with approximately 920 million Chinese people watching the opening ceremony Friday.

“In 2009, when China is expected to come within a whisker of overtaking the world's second largest ad economy Japan, it will record a 19.5 percent year-on-year ad spending increase to $42 billion,” the report stated, according to the Guardian.

"Growth in 2007 was relatively restrained, but we predict many marketers are conserving funds for the anticipated Olympic bonanza this year," said Adam Smith, the Group M futures director, according to the Guardian.

Despite its "relatively restrained" growth, China overtook Europe's two biggest advertising economies, the United Kingdom and Germany, in 2007, the Guardian reported.

China will contribute 23 percent of the predicted 5.8 percent growth in global ad spending this year, and 30 percent of the 4.5 percent growth forecast for 2009, according to The Guardian.