ITV Companies To Show Extra Ads To Counter War Effects
The ITC is to allow Carlton and Granada to run extra ads to make up for losses caused by moving ITV1’s nightly news bulletin to 9pm during the Iraq conflict.
The News At Nine has attracted record audiences since being moved from its original 10pm slot (see Feature: TV News Proves Its Worth In Times Of Crisis), but reports suggest that ITV has suffered from not showing ads during the bulletin (see ITV Drops Ads From Special News Bulletins).
The Independent On Sunday claims that this is due to lack of advertiser interest and is not the result of an editorial decision. Steve Anderson, ITV’s controller of news and current affairs, told the paper: “[Advertisers] don’t want to be associated with death and destruction.”
High-profile companies such as Proctor & Gamble, which produces Daz and Fairy Liquid, are understood to have pulled their campaigns to avoid having their brands promoted during reports from Iraq, causing analysts to predict that Granada could lose up to 5% of its peak time revenue.
Carlton chairman, Michael Green, recently warned that he expects the coming months to be challenging due to the uncertainty surrounding how advertisers will react to the war (see Carlton Sees Challenging H1 For ITV Ad Revenues). However, the decision to allow ITV to screen extra ads will no doubt provide a much needed boost to revenues, which are expected to be down by 6% to 7% for March (see ITV Advertising Forecasts From Merrill Lynch).
Channel 4, which has also significantly increased its news output, has reported no impact on its advertising as a result of the war. However, it is thought that one Sunday newspaper has pulled a series of Channel 4 ads promoting a free CD entitled Love around the World.
Reports suggest that the situation is much worse in the US, with three-quarters of advertisers withdrawing up to $1bn of spend in the first few days of the conflict.
Overnight figures from BARB show that the prospect of a long, drawn out conflict in Iraq appears to be prompting viewers to turn away from the extensive coverage of events on 24 hour TV news channels (see War Fatigue Hits 24 Hour News Channels).
ITC: 0207 306 7743 www.itc.org.uk
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