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UK Parliament

Lords question ITV Chairman and Chief Executive on advertising

10 November 2010

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ITV gave evidence to the House of Lords Communications Committee on Tuesday 2 November.  The Committee are considering regulation of the television advertising industry and asked about ITVs position and prospects in the television advertising market.

ITV's Chief Executive Mr Adam Crozier and Chairman Mr Archie Norman gave evidence accompanied by:

  • Ms Fru Hazlitt, Managing Director of Commercial and Online
  • Ms Carolyn Fairbairn, Director of Strategy and Development
  • Mr Magnus Brooke, Director of Regulatory Affairs

ITV is subject to specific Contract Rights Renewal (CRR) undertakings, which regulate what it can charge for advertising. The Committee asked about how the CRR regulations have affected ITVs revenue, programme investment and production, as well as the premium that ITV1 attracts for its advertising airtime.

The Committee also sought ITV’s views on the harmonisation of the rules on the number of minutes of advertising permitted on different television channels; and how it might be possible determine a fair market price for airtime based on advertiser demand.

The Committee took evidence from ITV in Committee Room 2 at 3.15pm on Tuesday 2 November for approximately 1 hour. At 4.15pm, following ITVs evidence, the Committee heard evidence from cable and satellite sector.

The Committee asked witnesses about subjects including how the abolition of CRR might affect their advertising revenues, the harmonisation of television advertising minutage and factors affecting their investment in original content.

Witnesses giving evidence to the Committee in the second evidence session at 4.15pm were:

  • Mr David Lynn, Managing Director, MTV UK and Chairman of Satellite & Cable Broadcasters Group (SCBG)
  • Ms Victoria Read, Executive Director, of SCBG
  • Mr David Wheeldon, Director of Policy & Public Affairs, BSkyB
  • Mr Martin Heaton Cooper, Head of UK Ad Sales, Discovery Networks UK
  • Mr Andrew Mallandaine, UK Sales Director, Turner Broadcasting