AMV.BBDO set to snatch £10m SwitchCo advertising account

Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO is poised to win the £10m SwitchCo advertising brief.

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Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO is poised to win the &£10m SwitchCo advertising brief.

It is understood that SwitchCo, the working group charged with co-ordinating the UK’s switchover to digital television, is poised to hand the account to AMV ahead of WCRS. The two agencies are believed to be the front-runners in a pitch-list that also includes JWT and M&C Saatchi.

Haystack Group was asked to oversee the search, which began after Ford Ennals, a former Lloyds TSB marketing chief, took up the role of chief executive in May.

SwitchCo is made up of public service broadcasters the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, five, Teletext and S4C and the digital terrestrial TV multiplex operators Crown Castle UK and SDN. Each member provides funding and is represented on the management board. A further two board members represent the interests of TV equipment manufacturers, retailers and aerial manufacturers and installers.

The not-for-profit organisation is working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Trade and Industry and Ofcom over preparations for a UK switchover to digital, mooted to be between 2008 and 2012. The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee last week announced it would be launching a fresh inquiry into the Government’s plans to switch off the analogue signal (MW last week).

SwitchCo refuses to comment, saying a decision will be announced later this week.

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