Advertising agencies should not be worried however, with Dawn Airey, new managing director of Sky Networks, saying that the company wants to target companies that regard television advertising as too expensive.
In an interview with the Financial Times' Creative Business supplement today, Airey says: "Instead of trying to make an ad for £30,000, we can do it for a fraction of the cost. We are not getting into the agency business -- we are trying to induce new clients into television."
She said that making cut-price ads would be a way of increasing revenue from spot advertising campaigns.
Airey has also asked Sky advertising executives to look at how they can cooperate with rival commercial networks, including ITV, to promote the medium of television advertising over other media such as print.
In the interview, she also dismisses the likelihood of BSkyB investing in Five, saying that Freeview is the company's terrestrial focus and that if the audience for Freeview increases then it could consider developing an advertising-funded entertainment channel.
Airey joined BSkyB in January from Channel 5, where she was chief executive and widely credited with the success of the station five years after it launched.
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