Online ad spend trumps airwaves

Advertisers are getting more in touch with the internet

The amount of money spent on internet advertising in the UK has exceeded the amount spent on radio ads for the first time, a report has found.

The online advertising take surged to £653.3m ($1.23bn) in 2004, a 60% rise on the previous year's £407.8m figure.

This represented 3.9% of the total spent by advertisers, slightly more than the 3.8% share that went to radio.

Online ad revenue has grown more than fourfold since 2000, said the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Broadband push

The press continued to take the biggest slice of the cake, scooping up 41.5% of available advertising revenue, followed by TV advertising which took 23.9% and direct mail which accounted for 14.6%.

Total spending on advertising rose by 5.8% to £16.9bn in 2004.

Behind the rapid growth in internet advertising has been a surge in the number of homes using high-speed broadband connections, the IAB said.

"There's a massive cultural shift going on forcing a change in consumer and advertiser behaviours," said IAB chief executive Guy Phillipson.

The IAB predicts that internet advertising will outstrip the amount spent on outdoor adverts, such as billboards, in the next few years.

The figures were compiled for the IAB by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC).