Google is about to overtake the UK's main commercial TV channels in the race for advertising revenue, a study says.
It found that the US internet search giant's 2006 UK revenues are expected to surpass Channel Four's predicted £800m ($1.5bn) returns.
Google will then overtake ITV1 within 18 months, advertising buying companies Mindshare and Initiative told the Financial Times.
Last month Google revealed global third quarter profits of $733m (£390m).
This was a 92% increase on the $381m it made during the same time last year.
YouTube acquisition
Google's overall third quarter revenues rose 70% from a year earlier to $2.7bn.
It also announced last month that it has bought video-sharing website YouTube for $1.65bn.
YouTube has 100 million videos viewed every day and an estimated 72 million individual visitors each month.
ITV1 accounts for 90% of the ITV group's advertising revenues, which totalled £1.63bn last year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6108678.stm