Doug Flynn, chief executive of media buying group, Aegis, claims the outcome of the investigation into the proposed £4 billion merger of Carlton and Granada is irrelevant because the creation of a single ITV is a near certainty.
According to reports in today’s press, Flynn expects Trade and Industry Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, to approve the deal within the next few weeks. However, he warned that imposing so-called behavioural remedies on the sale of ITV airtime would not reduce the broadcaster’s monopoly of the television advertising market.
He told The Guardian: “Taking a piece out of the advertising sales process won’t really do anything. It won’t deal with other monopolistic practices like charging newspapers to carry their TV listings and requiring media buyers to provide credit insurance, which no other broadcaster anywhere in the world does.”
Many analysts expect the Government to order Carlton or Granada to sell off one, or both, of their sales houses as part of a deal designed to calm advertisers’ fears over a single ITV distorting competition in the market for airtime sales.
However, Flynn said: “With the BBC soaking up airtime there is no way to increase competition. This is a bizarre TV market and what there are doing now is fiddling around the edges. You have more free TV in Russia than you do in the UK.”
Flynn’s comments come after the Department of Trade and Industry extended the ‘target deadline’ for Patricia Hewitt to rule on the merger from 20 to 30 working days. The Government now has until early October to make a decision.
A spokesman for the DTI said the timetable had been extended because of a number of newspaper deals awaiting decisions. However, he emphasised the current timeframe was an administrative target, rather than a statutory deadline.
Last month senior executives at the annual Media Guardian Edinburgh Television Festival insisted that the Carlton and Granada merger will go ahead even if the Government forces them to sell off their airtime sales houses (see Sales House Divestment Will Not Halt ITV Merger).
