Cadbury Renews £10 Million Coronation Street Sponsorship
Granada Enterprises has ended its deadlock with Cadbury Trebor Bassett and has persuaded the confectionery giant to renew its £10 million sponsorship of Coronation Street.
The deal follows weeks of negotiations between ITV sales executives and Cadbury, which was believed to have been trying to secure better terms for its sponsorship of ITV’s longest running soap.
The new two year-long contract covers all episodes of Coronation Street broadcast across the ITV Network, as well as episodes shown on Granada Plus. New idents are currently being created by Publicis and will air later this month.
Commenting on the deal, Graham Duff, managing director of ITV Sales, said: “We are delighted to confirm Cadbury is to sponsor Coronation Street for another two years. It is not only the biggest broadcast sponsorship association in Europe but also the most popular with viewers and consumers alike.”
Cadbury Trebor Bassetts’ marketing director, Louise Cook, said: “Our sponsorship credits first appeared in September 1996 and have been universally recognised as one of the best loved and most successful in television history.”
The original Cabury sponsorship was secured in the mid-nineties when audiences for Coronation Street averaged around 18 million. However, increasing competition from multi-channel broadcasters has caused ratings to drop to around 15 million.
David Peters, head of broadcast at media buying agency, Carat, said: “The sponsorship of Coronation Street brings in a huge amount of money for ITV and accounts for almost 20% of the network’s overall sponsorship revenue.”
Recent figures from BARB show that Coronation Street secured the biggest audience of 2003 with the February episode featuring the death of serial killer, Richard Hillman, attracting 19.4 million viewers.
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com
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