Joshua has won the ITV Digital below-the-line account after beating
Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel in the final round of the pitch
process.
Embattled ITV Digital held the review in readiness for a drive to win
new subscribers in its contest with Sky's digital offering.
BSkyB has confirmed that it added 45,000 subscribers to its digital
offering over the three months up to the end of September. However, ITV
Digital managed to garner 82,000 over the same period.
The account, worth about £6 million when last reviewed a year ago,
is expected to include customer acquisition and retention for both ITV
Digital and ITV Sport.
ITV Digital asked five agencies to pitch for the account. The incumbent,
Blue, went against Black Hole, Craik Jones, Joshua and TBWA/GGT Direct.
The list was then whittled down to Craik Jones and Joshua.
Last week it was revealed that Granada had brought in David Chance, a
former BSkyB executive, to advise it on the future of ITV Digital.
Chance was the deputy managing director of BSkyB until the mid-90s, and
is partly credited for the success of the satellite broadcaster.
Pressure has been mounting on Granada and Carlton, the controllers of
ITV Digital, to close down the loss-making venture. City brokers
speculate that the closure would save the companies £750 million.
However, Granada and Carlton are reluctant to shut it down as it would
leave them without a distribution channel after analogue television is
switched off.
