Net overtakes newspapers for UK ad spend

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Online ad spend in the UK overtook national newspapers and broke the £2 billion barrier in 2006.

According to research published today by the I nternet Advertising Bureau advertising online grew by 41.2 per cent to £2.016 billion as marketers moved their budgets away from traditional platforms.

In 2006 newspaper advertising recorded growth of 0.2 per cent to £1.9 billion and a market share of 10.9 per cent, the internet's share of all UK advertising revenues rose to 11.4 per cent, up from 7.8 per cent in 2005.

In 2006, the internet was just over half the size of the TV advertising market, which experienced a fall of 4.7 per cent to £3.9 billion last year.

Online boosted the declining UK ad market and brought overall growth of 1.1 per cent of the UK industry as traditional media combined fell by £466.1 million year-on-year - a 2.9 per cent decline.

The growth of paid-for search increased by 52 per cent to £1.2 billion of total online ad spend (a 57.8 per cent share).

Online classified advertising rose 45 per cent to £379 million, a share of 18.8 per cent.

This is in contrast to traditional press classified advertising that, according to the results, experienced a significant decrease of 7.8 per cent year-on-year.