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ISBA has said that it is willing to facilitate discussions regarding the possible benefits to UK advertisers of a single ITV company with representatives from the commercial channel and its own members. Until now the industry has maintained doubts that competitiveness could be maintained if the two major ITV shareholders, Carlton and Granada, are allowed to merge.

Bob Wootton, director of media and advertising affairs at ISBA, said: "Carlton and Granada regularly assert that a single ITV would be in the interests of UK advertisers, however, they have so far failed to make the case clearly and persuasively directly to advertisers. We hope that these discussions will give ITV a platform to present clear evidence of exactly how advertisers would benefit from further consolidation, and to clarify what they would be prepared to undertake to ensure that competition in the airtime market was safeguarded following consolidation."

Granada's chief executive, Steve Morrison, offered talks on these issues to advertisers when he addressed ISBA's Annual Conference last week (see Granada Chief Denies ITV's "Structural Decline").

ISBA: 020 7499 7502 www.isba.org.uk

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