Internet now biggest single ad medium in UK

The internet has now overtaken TV advertising in the UK to become the biggest single advertising medium, according to a report out today.

In the first half of 2009 internet advertising weathered the recession and grew by 4.6% to £1,752.1m, says the bi-annual online advertising expenditure study from the Internet Advertising Bureau in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Research Centre.

The UK remains the world leader in terms of market share for online, with the medium accounting for 23.5% in the first half of 2009. The study claims the results signal a significant restructure of marketing budgets as advertisers follow their audiences online and look to the internet for even more measureable and accountable methods.

It adds: "Despite the property market crash and stalled automotive and recruitment sectors, classifieds grew by 10.6% to £385m – or 22% of all online ad spend – reaping the benefits of the continued migration of advertising from print to online formats."