Interactive television advertising company Zip Television Limited has been put into administration after failing to sign a contract to carry its interactive adverts on ITV, the UK’s leading commercial television channel.
Zip TV originally set out to provide advertisers with an alternative to Sky Interactive, but was frustrated by the difficulty of agreeing contracts with broadcasters to enable red button links from commercials on their channels to a separate interactive advertising area operated independently on behalf of the consortium.
The company managed to bring together an impressive consortium of advertisers, representing some of the biggest spenders in television advertising. Proctor & Gamble later pulled out of the Zip consortium, but others, notably Honda, remained loyal to the concept.
The group eventually managed to do deals with all the main commercial channels apart from ITV, which is apparently planning its own interactive advertising platform.
“Having a genuine alternative to Sky is a necessity,” Andrew Howells, the joint managing partner at Zip TV, told Campaign, the advertising industry weekly. “There is only room for one alternative and it needs to be an independent one.”
It remains to be seen whether Sky and ITV will allow room for such an alternative.
Zip TV was put into administration on 19 January 2006, with eight weeks to find a buyer to avoid being wound up.