THE internet is poised to overtake newspapers as the second largest U.S. advertising medium by revenue behind television

The online ad business, excluding mobile ads, is set to expand to $34.4 billion in 2014 from $24.2 billion in 2009, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook for 2010 to 2014.

Newspapers, meanwhile, continued to suffer from a decline in advertising revenue. According to numbers released by the Newspaper Association of America earlier this year, print advertising revenue dropped 28.6 percent in 2009 to $24.82 billion.

“Although the internet did not fully escape the impact of the recession, its decline in the United States was much less severe than that of other advertising media,” the PwC report noted.

Shifts in consumer behavior, potential for inventory on the internet, and increased broadband penetration in the U.S. were key factors in PwC’s projections, according to David Silverman, a partner at PwC.

In 2005, the broadband penetration in U.S. households was at 34 percent. An estimated 64 percent of households now have a broadband connection.

The study noted that the federal government’s allocation of $7.2 billion of the stimulus plan for the expansion of broadband services, as well as the increased availability of triple-play packages, which bundle internet service with television and telephone service, were catalysts for growth in U.S. broadband access.

The report was particularly bullish on the growth of advertising across interactive media, video and email and predicted that this segment of the market will reach $6.6 billion in 2014 from $4.7 billion in 2009.