Google tipped as UK's biggest ad channel

Search giant Google's latest revenue figures show it is "almost certain" to be the largest advertising channel in the UK, according to a market analyst.

The search company's UK revenue has grown to 1.3 billion, and may have exceeded the advertising income of television channels like ITV and Channel 4.

"It seems almost certain that, as predicted last year, Google therefore overtook ITV1 in 2007 revenues," said Associated Northcliffe Digital analyst, Seamus McCauley, in a blog post.

"ITV has yet to release full-year figures for 2007 but having generated "net advertising revenues" of 595m from ITV1 during the first half of the year it's unlikely to have caught up with Google's 1.3bn by the end of the period."

Google now draws 15 per cent of its global income from the UK, according to recently released figures.

During 2007 the company saw UK revenue of nearly 1.3 billion, compared to just over 4 billion from the US. This represents a dramatic increase on 2006 figures for the UK, which stood at 900 million.

The figures have been released as part of Google's 10k form, an annual report that US companies must file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).