According to one agency's head of broadcast: "I am expecting the Aegis and Five debacle to be resolved pretty soon, as RTL has put some pressure on Carat's pan-European clients to get it sorted in the UK.
"I understand that RTL has also brought the fact that Vizeum (part of Aegis) is Five's media agency into the debate and used this to apply some more pressure."
Aegis and Five were engaged in talks as Media Week went to press, and a positive outcome was expected.
Another agency's broadcast director said: "Five believes it is close to nailing its deal with Aegis. This is in light of RTL having much bigger conversations with Aegis's pan-European clients."
Last week, the broadcaster wrote directly to Aegis clients in a bid to force the agency into resolving the stand-off (Media Week, 15 January, page 4).
Aegis is understood to be under pressure from clients such as toy brand Mattel, direct response brands and the COI to get the issue resolved as quickly as possible.
Some TV buyers believe that Aegis targeted Five as it is one of the weaker sales houses in terms of negotiating strength and that the agency had to build flexibility into its TV deals in order to pay back the ones it had not delivered from the year before.
.jpg)
.jpg)