Carlton and Granada announced this morning that they were in advanced merger talks, ending years of speculation. The go ahead for the merger came in the draft communications bill earlier this year. The full bill will not finish its route through Parliament until next year.
Although the merger has been largely welcomed by advertisers, there are grave concerns that the price of airtime sales would rocket if the sales houses merged.
However Carlton and Granada are expected to announce the creation of two independent sales houses which would be spun off from the merged broadcaster, in an attempt to convince advertisers that they are not colluding on price.
Channel 4 commercial director Andy Barnes accused the companies of "seeking to downplay the effects of their merger" with talk of "independent sales houses".
He said: "It is absolutely transparent that if this deal is allowed to proceed a single company will control 54% of TV advertising in the UK."
This compares with Channel 4's 24% and Channel 5's 7.3%. The rest is controlled by the multichannel market.
Barnes said: "Granada itself argued against Carlton's proposed merger with United News and Media in 2000 on precisely these grounds and we do not believe the competition authorities are any more likely now than they were then to clear a deal which is so fundamentally anti-competitive."
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