ITV 'expected to secure CRR changes'

ITV is expected to secure its much-hoped for review of the Contract Rights Renewal mechanism, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

The Office for Fair Trading will announce before the end of the summer whether CRR will be reviewed, but the newspaper quoted a Deutsche Bank analyst who said that a number of "vested interests have made the case that a weak ITV means a weak television industry."

CRR was implemented when Carlton and Granada merged to form ITV plc over concerns that the combined companies would exercise too much clout in ad price negotiations. In essence, it put in place an automatic system whereby the amount of money advertisers have to commit to ITV on a rolling annual basis may be reduced if ITV's overall audience share fell. However, it has been blamed for reductions in ad revenue of over £300m since its implementation, and executive chairman Michael Grade has warned that it is essential for the mechanism to be changed.

In May, ITV said of CRR: "It has become apparent that [CRR] not only prevents ITV from receiving fair value for the mass audiences it delivers, and which are so sought after by advertisers, but it is also damaging to the overall UK television advertising market."