Online advertising outstrips national newspapers

Internet advertising has broken the £2bn-per-year barrier, making the market half the size of TV advertising, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

The UK online advertising trade body - run in partnership by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Research Centre - said there had been a 41.2 per cent surge in online spending as marketers switched to online activity in 2006.

This increased internet advertising's share of overall spend to 11.4 per cent in 2006, up from 7.8 per cent in the previous year.

This means that for the first time, internet advertising has overtaken national newspapers as the preferred medium. Newspaper advertising share still grew marginally over the period but TV advertising share fell by 4.7 per cent to £3.9bn.

A spokesman for the IAB put the growth in internet advertising down to the steady growth in broadband access, with the automotive, technology, property and retailing sectors being the areas where spending increased the most.

Recruitment is still the biggest advertiser in terms of internet advertising market share.

Paul Pilkington director of PricewaterhouseCoopers' entertainment and media practice said in a statement: "The incredible growth of online has beaten all the industry predictions. The internet has now overtaken national press as marketers have followed their audiences online and enjoyed measurable returns on their investment."