Plan To Beat Rising TV Costs – CIA

The Government should remove public service TV advertising from commercial networks, currently worth around £40m, and put it as public service messages on the BBC. This is one of the recommendations of a 5-point plan put forward by CIA Medianetwork to beat spiralling TV advertising cost inflation.

The 5-point plan to control TV advertising inflation is:

1. Legislation so Channel 4 and ITV can both increase spending on programmes. End C4’s rebate to ITV, and bring forward the ITV licence “break clauses” so that C3 bids can be renegotiated to enable more money to be redirected into programmes.
2. Encourage ITV to invest more in its programmes. The 1995 ITV network programme budget of £550 million is only 3.8% up on 1994. With ITV revenues up around 9%, it should be spending more. Short-term, this means more blockbuster movie premieres in peak-time and capitalise more on programme events – such as Bet Gilroy leaving Coronation Street. Long-term, suggest CIA, more must be invested in original programming.
3. Encourage ITV and C4 to market their programmes more effectively. This is important as BBC takes share from ITV. ITV invests very little in promoting its product (£1.3m on advertising according to Register-MEAL).
4. Remove implied constraints on ITV scheduling. Allow ITV to schedule competitively. Some ITV companies want News at Ten to be moved to allow uninterrupted films and drama, as do advertisers and consumers. CIA Medianetwork calculates that removing the News at Ten interruption from films and drama would increase commercial audiences by 1%.
5. Move all public service Government advertising from commercial TV to BBC. This would embrace the BBC’s public service remit and benefit all, believe CIA Medianetwork. It would cut airtime demand by 1.5%.

CIA Medianetwork said it does not believe that increasing advertising minutage is the way to beat TV ad inflation. It say this short-term fix would be self-defating as it would encourage “zapping” between ads and lessen the effectiveness of ads. 86% of viewers say that longer or more frequent ad breaks would spoil their enjoyment of watching television.

CIA Medianetwork managing director Mike Tunnicliffe said, “The current rate of TV inflation is unacceptable to our clients. ITV is increasing revenue but not re-investing in its programmes to increase viewers. With a greater investment in programming and marketing, an overall reduction in inflation of 5% points should be possible.”

CIA Medianetwork: 0171 633 9999