ITV's commercial rivals are furious that its shareholders are promising closer collaboration at a time when regulators still oppose a single ITV.
The row stemmed from Carlton chief executive Gerry Murphy's promise that presentations to big advertisers would bring together programme-makers, commissioning executives and marketing managers for the first time.
"Regulators need to stop back-door manoeuvres toward a joining of ITV's sales houses," said a C4 spokesman.
And a senior source at Sky said: "Talk of combining such operations is a big step toward outright merger of the dominant organisations in commercial TV and raises the same competition issues as an actual merger."
The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers described the closer ties as "an attempt to merge by stealth".
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
