Google's UK ad revenue to overtake ITV | Media | guardian.co.uk

Google's UK ad revenue to overtake ITV | Media | guardian.co.uk

Google's UK advertising business will this year eclipse ITV, Britain's biggest advertising earner, according to analysis by the Guardian.

Figures released by the search giant reveal that the UK generated $969m (£593m) of revenue in the first quarter of 2011. On present growth rates of around 25% per quarter – which it has sustained since September 2009 – Google will rack up between $5.2bn (£3.2bn) and $5.6bn (£3.4bn) in the UK.

However to make the most accurate comparison of Google's and ITV's advertising revenues, it is necessary subtract the search engine's "traffic acquisition costs" (TAC), which Google pays to partners such as AOL or MySpace to acquire business. Those have run at 25% of revenue for the past five quarters.