ITV Negotiates To Keep Coronation Street Sponsor
Granada Enterprises is currently in negotiations with Cadbury Trebor Bassett to prevent the confectionery giant ending its £10 million sponsorship of Coronation Street after almost a decade.
Cadbury’s contract came up for renewal at the end of last year and the company is understood to have been in negotiations with ITV sales executives over the terms of a new deal for the last two weeks.
The original 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 and reports suggest the confectionery brand believes its is paying too much for the deal.
A spokesperson for Granada Enterprises confirmed the terms of the agreement were currently being reviewed, but refused to comment on wide-spread speculation that ITV is talking to alternative advertisers about a new sponsorship deal.
Industry reports suggest that Cadbury’s credits and break bumpers could be dropped from the soap by the end of this week if no agreement is reached. This could cause major problems for ITV as it could take up to six months to find a sponsor willing to pay the current asking price.
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.”
He added: “I would be surprised if ITV had any trouble finding a new sponsor, but it could take ITV up to six months to complete the deal. It would take two or three months to flush out clients that could afford to invest and another two or three months to get the creative work completed.”
ITV has seen revenue pick up over the last few months as it gradually pulls itself out of the advertising downturn. However, the loss of such a major sponsor would be a blow to the network’s attempts to improve its relations with advertisers (see ITV Poaches RAB’s Sampson To Boost Advertiser Relations).
Analysis of the viewing figures shows that audiences for Coronation Street have fluctuated over the last three years with lows of around 9 million occasionally recorded. However, the long running soap secured the biggest audience of 2003 with the February episode featuring the death of serial killer, Richard Hillman, attracting 19.4 million viewers.
ITV is also believed to be considering capitalising on the success of its most established soaps with the launch of a day-time spin-off series. Granada’s head of drama, John Whiston, recently announced that following the demise of Night and Day and Crossroads, executives want to produce a successful daytime soap.
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com
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