Spending on UK Internet advertising leapt ahead last year, overtaking the amount spent in national newspapers for the first time, according to a report from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Online expenditure jumped almost 42% to £2.01bn, while spending on newspaper ads grew just 0.2% to £1.9bn, representing a 10.7% share of the market.

However, although online advertising accounted for 11.4% of the total market share, Internet advertising spend was still just over half of that of TV advertising, which itself declined 4.7% over the year to £3.9bn.

“The Internet is a hugely popular mass medium now, and advertisers are continuing to switch more of their budgets online to build their brands and interact with their customers,” said IAB chief executive Guy Phillipson.

“2006 was a tough year for the advertising market as a whole, but once again the Internet bucked the trend, recording a 41% increase in ad revenues.”

He continued: “With consumers now enjoying even faster broadband and installing wireless routers in their homes, the growth of online advertising in the UK is definitely set to continue unabated in the medium- to long term.”

The report noted the decline in revenue attracted by more traditional media and said that the growth in online advertising “reflects a new era driven by high-speed broadband take-up and user-generated content”.