Competition Commission to delay CRR ruling
A final decision in a review of ITV’s Contract Rights Renewal system will be delayed until February next year, the Competition Commission has admitted.
The commission says this is because it is still considering a number of submissions it has received, before it can publish its final report. The results were due to be published by the end of the year.
In a statement, the commission says it “continues to receive significant submissions, which we’re having to consider carefully.”
Unlike other inquiries, the CRR decision does not have a statutory time limit for the Competition Commission to announce its findings.
In September, the commission published a provisional decision that ruled that the CRR system should remain in place but that some variations might be justified. It asked respondents to propose variations and give their views on a proposal to widen the definition of ITV1 to include a possible ITV+1 channel.
ITV welcomed the findings and its outgoing chairman Michael Grade said he will help ITV to deal with the CRR review. Grade will be replaced by former Asda cief executive Archie Norman, is joining the company on January 1.
