ISBA Conference: Fragmented Future

Laurence Haselhurst, Media and Marketing Services Manager of Pedigree Petfoods, pointed out that the advertising industry should follow two basic principles: competition and complementarity. Competition in order to raise standards and keep prices down, and complementarity in order to maintain coverage of the whole population. The situation in television is not satisfactory he said because concentration of power has led to conditional selling as a way of life, so that it is no longer possible for advertisers to buy what they need without paying for what they don’t want.

Mr Haselhurst believes the ISBA’s lobbying for competition has paid off because the advent of new channels has opened up more opportunities for the advertising industry. Yet the rise of pay-TV is worrying: it restricts public access and denies advertisers revenue. He also believes that digital TV, though it could be exploited, threatens fragmentation of audience.

As a rational, sensible way of selling TV he believes that ITV should have 5 sales houses instead of 3 to introduce competition and express regional differences; there should be separate sales houses for differing time slots; and satellite should have two competing sales houses. He believes that these are the best measures to cope with fragmentation, and that advertising is still the most efficient and democratic way of funding the media.