±±¾©Èü³µpk10

According to a report in The Times this morning, Allen wants the removal of the CRR, which allows advertisers to cut their adspend to reflect any loss of audience share at ITV1.

With ITV1 audiences down by 9% in the first half of the year, ITV stands to lose £150m unless it can dramatically reverse the steep decline.

The £150m loss would be a major blow to ITV, wiping out entirely the £135m annual savings in its broadcast licence fee, which was recently given to the broadcaster by media watchdog Ofcom.

ITV was hit hard in the first half by its failure to come up with a successful Saturday night format. Earlier this year, the Vernon Kay-fronted 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' flopped with fewer than 3m viewers, and 'Celebrity Wrestling' was pulled from its primetime slot halfway through its eight-week run after attracting only 2m viewers.

There is some hope, however. ITV's 'X Factor', which recently began its second series on Saturday, pulled in 6.6m viewers on its first outing, leaving BBC One reality show 'He's Having a Baby' out in the cold with 2.4m.

Part of the problem with the Contract Rights Renewal for ITV is that it takes no account of soaring multichannel audiences.

ITV's digital channel ITV2 has performed well and is challenging multichannel entertainment leader Sky One. ITV has also enjoyed success with ITV3 and it has similar hopes for ITV4, which launches on November 1.

The Contract Rights Renewal was part of the price Carlton and Granada had to pay the Competition Commission to get their £4.5bn merger through.

The Competition Commission wanted to ensure that ITV did not have too much power in the advertising market after it became a single entity. However, the multichannel market has continued to boom in the 18 months since the merger became final.

"No other comparable-sized European broadcaster has to operate under such a system. It was never intended to punish us for the success of multichannel television, but it has," Allen told the Broadcasting Press Guild.

He added that no one could say that ITV have a monopoly over advertising.

"I struggle to see why we have these constraints," Allen said.

If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .