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Advertisers are concerned that legal action in the US between the

beer company Miller Brewing and its former advertising agencies could

set back efforts to change television trading practices in the UK.

Advertisers have been in favour of a move away from the station average

price sales mechanism traditionally used by ITV sales houses but say the

case to move to fixed-price selling, which has been gathering momentum

in the past year, will be damaged by the US action.

The US case centres on action by Miller to recover money or airtime from

Bates USA and Zenith USA after claims that the agencies failed to

deliver audience levels promised during negotiations.

The brewer, which sacked the agencies in 1996, is asking for dollars 7m

compensation for breach of contract and negligence, saying the agencies

initially promised compensation but later reneged.

A senior source at one UK client following the case closely, said: ’It

will be a big story if they win. Either way, it will set back the case

for not using station average price. The problem is people could start

getting nervous about negotiating on fixed prices - that would be

disastrous.’

Sources say fixed-price deals, in which media owners agree to deliver a

certain number of ratings for a certain price, could leave the agency or

media owner liable to actions such as Miller’s.

Julian Coles, head of group procurement at Boots, agreed that the case

could affect the use of fixed-price deals, saying: ’There is certainly a

greater element of risk in going for fixed-price deals.’

UK clients distanced themselves from the possibility of suing their

agencies.

John Blakemore, advertising services manager at SmithKline Beecham,

said: ’I would hope that things would not get to this, but stupider

things have happened.’

A-Z Media, page 8.