Advertisers have lashed out at the proposed merger plans of Carlton and United News & Media, announced last week (see Carlton And United News & Media Set For £7.8bn Merger). Ad agency executives and managers from the two ITV groups are set to meet in the next few days to raise their concerns about the proposals.
According to a report in the Guardian, John Raad, director for media affairs at the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising (IPA), is concerned that the merger is taking place while ITV still accounted for 62% of all TV advertising. According to rules laid down by the IPA to the OFT, no ITV company should take more than 24% of all ad revenue until ITV’s share of total spend has fallen below 50%.
With ITV’s share rising advertisers feel that the merger will create a company with a powerful stranglehold on UK TV advertising airtime, which will inevitably lead to the increase in sales.
There have been suggestions that the two groups will keep their sales houses separate in an attempt to prevent such a stranglehold taking place. When contacted by Newsline this week TSMS and Carlton UK Sales, which between them look after the sales for all the ITV franchises which will be united in the merger, were unsure of their future.
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