The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising said it was unhappy that the DTI was allowing the merger of Carlton Communications and Granada to go ahead, subject to only "behavioural restrictions" on its airtime sales operations.
The trade body had been pressing for one or both of the ITV sales houses to be sold off to stop a combined ITV controlling over 50% of the UK TV advertising market.
Now that the Department of Trade and Industry has come down in favour of allowing the merger, subject to the remedies relating to contract rights renewals, the IPA says it will be pressing to ensure the mechanism is as watertight as possible to prevent the risk of abuse.
Jim Marshall, chairman of the IPA's Media Futures Group, said: "Clearly, we will need to analyse the implications of the DTI's conclusions in depth before making any detailed comments. However, we will be looking to the OFT, ITC and Ofcom to devise a system that will prevent any possibility of the combined sales operation abusing its dominant position in the market."
*In its statement, Channel 4 said it was untroubled by the merger and was confident that it would continue to succeed on the back of its success serving an upmarket and younger audience.
"We hope the remedies, which have still to be finalised with the OFT, will be enough to prevent any abuse by a single ITV of its dominant position in that market. We are confident that a smaller, independent player like Channel 4 can continue to prosper because our financial success in the last decade has been built on delivering an upmarket and younger alternative to the mainstream audiences for ITV."
ISBA, the voice of British advertisers, said it welcomed the secretary of state's decision. It said it was particularly pleased that the Competition Commission's recommendation, that there should be a new independent adjudicator to ensure compliance with the detailed commitments required by the secretary of state, was included.
It says these undertakings are wide-ranging and designed to ensure that a merged ITV will not exploit its dominant position in commercial television.
Malcolm Earnshaw, ISBA director deneral, said: "We welcome the fact that the Competition Commission and secretary of state have so clearly focused on the views of advertisers with respect to ITV's advertising airtime sales arrangements and have incorporated wide-ranging conditions aimed at ensuring competition for advertisers in their decision."
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