Sky to scrap red-button advertising

BSkyB is set to axe red-button advertising on all Sky channels and third parties such as MTV at the end of June.

Current advertising campaigns, which include Toyota and Ford, will stop running on Sky and other channels including Nickelodeon from June, although will continue to run on ITV, Virgin Media and UKTV as their ad slots are sold separately.

The red-button service, which launched nine years ago, only has 60 campaigns running on it at the moment, compared with a high of 160 in 2006.

Jeremy Tester, communications director at Sky Media, said: “Sky doesn’t pursue things that there is no demand for.  The green button has a lot to do with it, but as one door closes, another one opens.”

Sky is now set to focus on selling ads for its green-button service as well as the launch of its Ad Smart service, which is due to be released next year.