Panellists Show Little Sympathy For ITV’s CRR Woes

ITV’s programming woes are not a direct result of the Contract Rights Renewal mechanism, but rather a lack of investment in the 1990s, according to Jim Marshall, chairman of Starcom Mediavest Group, who was speaking at MediaTel Group’s ‘Future of Television’ seminar in London yesterday.

“The company spent a decade sorting out the business of the merger,” said Marshall, questioning: “Why should it be incumbent on advertisers to bail them out?”

Nick Bampton, managing director at Viacom Brand Solutions, was also fairly unsympathetic. However, he did admit that he was “very much up for a review” of the mechanism.

“No one has come up with an alternative,” added Marshall. “We’re quite happy to consider alternatives as long as others are afforded protections, but the onus is really on ITV to do this. It’s their call.”

He said: “I will be surprised if they come up with something acceptable. We do have some concerns with the way CRR works. You can look at it in the same way as old age – it’s not necessarily great but it beats the alternative.”

Journalist Ray Snoddy questioned whether the interests of advertisers were being properly served, pointing out that the broadcasting and media landscapes have changed dramatically since the CRR was introduced.

Recently the Office of Fair Trading announced that it is to conduct a review of the CRR, to be conducted in partnership with Ofcom, scheduled for early next year.

ITV responded to the news in a statement, saying: “ITV welcomes the OFT’s decision to review the Contract Rights Renewal remedy put in place in 2003 prior to the Granada-Carlton merger (see OFT To Conduct Review Of CRR).

“We will be making the strongest possible representations to the OFT to conclude the processes within a year from now, giving advertisers and commercial broadcasters the certainty needed to contract airtime and plan levels of programme investment for the calendar year 2009.”

ITV referred the CRR to the OFT last October in a bid to get it scrapped (see ITV Refers CRR To OFT).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com MediaTel Group: 020 7439 7575 www.mediatelgroup.co.uk