Based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service, the study revealed how the online service of traditional British media channels including the BBC, The Guardian and the Daily Mail had more overseas visitors than those from the UK.

It was found that nearly 60 per cent of the overall online audience of the BBC’s website originated from abroad. Surprisingly, the Daily Mail has the highest proportion of unique foreign visitors (69 per cent) with over 5 million unique overseas visitors. The Telegraph (57 per cent) and the Guardian Media Group (57 per cent) also had a high number of readers originating internationally. British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and ITV sites were the only websites from the ten questioned with less than a quarter of visitors not based in the UK.

Bob Ivins, EVP of European Markets for comScore attributed this trend to the lack of geographical boundaries on the web.

"UK media companies have been able to acquire significant international audiences by leveraging their brands online. The reason there is such a huge proportion of visitors to British online media channels is purely a questions of numbers. The UK’s online population represents only a small percentage of the overall world users. Search engines have also created a world without geographical boundaries."

The survey also revealed how consumers are increasingly looking to the web for their news content. Both the DailyMail.co.uk and the Telegraph Group’s online audiences had more than doubled in number from the previous year with 7.6 million visitors and 6.2 million visitors respectively. The BBC however, still leads the way when it comes to online visitors with almost 46 million unique visitors, up ten per cent from the previous year. Only BSkyB’s online audience figures had dropped (by 1 per cent) from 2007.

Despite this continued rise in the popularity of online news sites, Ivans does not believe that this represents the end of the traditional media establishments.

"The Internet may well be taking audiences from the more ‘traditional’ forms of media but there will come a point where Internet take up reaches a saturation point. Both ‘new’ and ‘old’ media will at one point form an equilibrium with consumption of both neither increasing nor decreasing," said Ivans.

"I still buy magazines and newspapers and there is still a large section of the population that do not have access to the Internet. The print media will not fade away overnight and while it will still decline in sales for some time yet, the industry is not going away."

A major trend this year will be how the online portals monetise their content. The change from subscription based services to free content has meant that advertising remains the most viable form of generating revenue, though this year there will be huge strides made.

"The current business models for the online versions of print media are very similar - advertising is still the main channel for revenue. However, niche publications such as those targeting the legal or medical sector can still charge for subscriptions," said Ivans.

"In 2008 we will get to the promised land of targeted online advertising. This year geo-targeting will be one of the main trends in online advertising."