Richard Desmond pulls Five out of Thinkbox
Five is to leave the television marketing body Thinkbox but the organisation will still represent 92% of the market by audience.
The TV broadcaster was recently acquired by Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell (N&S) company for £103.5m.
Desmond’s newspaper The Daily Express does not belong to newspaper marketing body the Newspaper Marketing Agency.
However, Five did recently confirm its return to the on-demand TV joint venture Project Canvas, now called YouView.
A spokesman for Thinkbox says that the withdrawal of Channel 5 is purely a financial decision by its owners.
Stan Myerson, group joint MD of N&S, says: “Northern & Shell is committed to the future of Channel 5 – to invest in exciting new content, to redistribute money to other key areas of the business and to make important savings. We have a strong and stand alone sales team at Channel 5 which will continue to demonstrate the effectiveness of the channel’s offering for advertisers. Through the entire Northern & Shell portfolio, we now provide the real opportunity for brands to negotiate innovative cross media advertising and sponsorship solutions, reaching over 73% of the UK population every week.”
Digital broadcaster UKTV is about to join Thinkbox as a full member. The other existing shareholders are Channel 4, GMTV, ITV, Sky Media, and Turner Media Innovations.
Thinkbox has just released data showing that television viewing increased by more than two hours per person in the first-half of the year
