ITV is Britian's oldest independent television network. It competes with the government run BBC roster of channels.

It's also the biggest recipient of advertising revenue in Britain. But maybe not for long.

According to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google's revenues in the UK hit $1.6 Billion in 2006. That makes it the number two ad revenue earner in Britian, trailing only ITV, which had revenues of $4.2 Billion in 2006.

Despite that seeming large gap between the two, Google is growing quickly in Britain, benefiting from a shift away from more traditional advertising mediums like television. The $1.6 Billion figure represented a whopping 83% rise in revenues over 2005.

Think there's room for growth in online advertising in the British Isles? With Google reporting numbers like that, it sure looks that way.

Google is obviously aware that its growth in ad revenue in the UK might be making some uneasy. Google issued a statement that "[t]he market for online ads is growing and there's room for many players within it."

Translation?

"We'll try not to wipe other media companies off the face of the earth. But it's not our fault if they can't follow the money."

Odds are Google won't overtake ITV this year, but if Google's ad growth in Britan remains on its current tear, it's feasible that Google could be number one in ad revenue in the UK by 2009, possibly as early as 2008.

On a side note, not everything at Google may be quite as rosy as its ad revenues would indicate. The SEC has made several formal requests regarding probing Google's tax accounting. There's probably way more smoke than fire there, but you have to wonder about the repercussions of an accounting/ earnings scandal at Google, were one to ever come.

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