Sales houses demand CIA pays upfront

CIA has had to pay an additional 1.2m to television sales houses this year as an upfront payment, according to a prospectus it sent out to shareholders.

Last year CIA paid 1.9m to sales houses, such as Laser and TSMS, in compensation for over-trading last year. It announced a drop in profits for 1996 of 26 per cent from 6.68m to 4.92m, which was entirely due to the settlement with the ITV companies.

The prospectus was sent out last week to raise 17m for acquisitions.

The news has stunned other media buyers. “The fact that an agency which purports to be the second biggest independent airtime trader in the country is having to make upfront deals of this magnitude is astounding,” says the head of one rival agency.

CIA has declared its intention of spending 100m on acquisitions over the next four years.

CIA executive chairman Chris Ingram was unavailable for comment as Marketing Week went to press.

Last week, Ingram denied that talks he held with Omnicom chairman Bruce Crawford (MW May 22) were anything other than having “breakfast or lunch”.