Online advertising to beat TV

THE internet will usurp television as the biggest advertising medium in Britain by the end of 2009, according to a report published yesterday.

Britain has the most developed online advertising market in the world, which the report said was worth £2.8 billion in 2007. According to the research by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Research Centre, last year's 38 per cent online ad growth was driven by the rising number of people online.

It was also fuelled by the introduction of cheap laptops and the growing popularity of catch-up TV on the internet through services such as Channel 4's 4oD.

IAB's Guy Phillipson said: "With broadband speeds on the up and consumers spending more time on more sites, the outlook for online advertising is rosy – we expect it to overtake TV in 2009 when it will become the UK's biggest medium."

The report said the internet was the biggest driver of overall advertising growth in 2007, with the entire sector in Britain experiencing 4.3 per cent growth to £18.4bn.