For some years it has looked certain that one day the internet would overtake television to become Britain's largest advertising medium. A study by PwC for the Internet Advertising Bureau this week says that day has come.

The report shows that online advertising rose to 23.5% of the total market in the first half of this year, while TV was on 21.9%. Online spending grew 4.6% to £1.752bn in the first half of 2009, while TV spending shrank 16.1% to £1.639bn.

Advocates for commercial braodcasting protest that the two figures are not directly comparable, since online marketing covers a wider range of activity than broadcast adverts - E-mail campaigns, classified adverts, display ads and search marketing are all classed as online advertising.

However, it's tough to argue against the trend.

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