Online advertising spending in Britain surged 40.3 percent to 917.2 million pounds ($1.72 billion) in the first half of 2006 compared to last year, giving it a market share of 10.5 percent, new data showed on Wednesday.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB UK) said Internet ad spending had continued to grow despite a depressed overall market and predicted it would overtake spending on national press advertising before the end of 2006.

According to the study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the IAB, the Internet is the fastest-growing advertising medium in the UK, commanding a market share of 10.5 percent for January to June 2006, up from 7.3 percent for the same period in 2005.

IAB said this took online advertising to within one percentage point of the national press, which recorded an 11.4 percent share for the first half of 2006.