Carlton and Granada Entertain A Rethink

With Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt expected to announce her decision on the proposed �4bn merger of Carlton and Granada in the week beginning October 6, the Granada and Carlton dynamic duo - Charles Allen and Michael Green - are doing a bit of backpedaling in anticipation that the lobbyists haven’t worked the magic and that things therefore won’t be as rosy (or lucrative) as they would have liked.

Allen, in an article in today’s Times states that the two companies would now be willing to entertain selling off their respective sales houses if that was the government’s price for a green light on a merger. This is a scenario the companies have claimed undoable throughout the review process. Back in May Mr Allen blasted the idea as a “step backwards” for ITV.

Of course what Allen and Green think may now be irrelevant. The ITV leadership was badly dented during the embarrassing ITV Digital fiasco and many, perhaps rightly, want the pair out of the door. As today’s Media Guardian points out -’under the planned merger Mr Allen would become chief executive of the single ITV with Mr Green as chairman, although many in the City have expressed doubts about their management.’ Allen and Green are now likely fighting for a future that isn’t their own, rethink or not.