Embryonic television sales house AH Media is looking to recruit a
number of sales people to sell across local television.
Founder and chief executive, Andy Hawkins, a former executive sales
director at Granada Media Sales, has so far recruited only one
salesperson, Steve Roose, who arrives from in-store radio house WBS.
Roose, who becomes national sales director, said: ’We are looking for
pure sales people with a varied background. As we are reversing the
national sales house trend and taking television back to a local level,
we need people with experience across the media. Ideally, candidates
will have a good knowledge of local press and radio. We don’t want any
ITV sales negotiators here.’
AH Media has already secured 11 local stations including, Midland Asian
TV - which is broadcast in Leicester - and Liverpool’s Asian Channel,
both cable operators. The others local stations will go countrywide from
Cambridge and Sheffield to Cardiff. Hawkins plans to move into Scotland
when the sales house is in full swing next year.
The company aims to build the profile of local television by providing a
less traditional form of advertising for local clients. ’Eventually we
want to put ourselves against the likes of TSMS, but right now our
natural competitors are the local press, local radio, Channel 5 and
Channel 4. We are pitching for a percentage of their budget and plan to
represent over 70 stations by the end of next year,’ said Roose.
The local stations will operate under the restrictive service licence
announced two weeks ago where licences have changed from two to four
years.
As part of the RSL, the standard cable and satellite restrictions apply
to advertising, where stations can operate up to 12 minutes per hour of
airtime. Although local advertising is cost-effective, Roose claims that
the channels reach a wide audience via densley populated local towns and
cities.
