The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) has backed
the Independent Television Commission's (ITC) ruling last week to
prevent further substantial consolidation of TV airtime sales
points.
In new rules, the commission outlaws ITV sales houses asking advertisers
to commit a share of their advertising revenues to ITV. It has also
decided to continue existing bans on joint selling of airtime by Granada
and Carlton and on the two London licensees selling their airtime
together.
The ITC said that despite last year's consolidation of ITV sales points
from three to two, Channel 4, Channel 5 and BSkyB, which each command
over 5% of national ad revenue, should not sell airtime together. ISBA
director of media and advertising affairs Bob Wootton said: "This
protects the existing level of competition within the airtime sales
market."
In a small concession to the competitive nature of the TV airtime
market, the ITC has said that companies such as Flextech and Viacom with
less than 5% of national advertising revenue can consolidate their
airtime sales.
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