By the end of 2008, Group M predicts a 24.8% share of ad spend in the UK going to the internet (with TV at 26%).

The group also predicts that online ad spend will already exceed TV in Sweden this year.

Of the Web’s three different ad markets, search, display an dclassified, most of the online ad revenue growth has been driven by search, which is expected to grow by about 35% this year, compared to a 20% growth for the display and classified sectors.

However, "the growth of search is not a threat to established media," said Adam Smith, futures director at Group M. "It is the growth of online display advertising, although small, that is a threat with money coming from areas such as newspaper ad revenue and maybe some TV spend."

Smith also acknowledged that both the UK and Sweden are special cases. The UK’s “TV share [of all media spend] is depressed by the BBC and there is still a large and healthy print sector and Britons are among the world's heaviest internet users."

For more on this topic, take a look at this posting from our partner site, the SFN Blog, according to which Publicis’ ZenithOptimedia predicts that global Internet ad spend will overtake radio in 2008, and magazine ad spend in 2010.

Source: Guardian – SFN Blog