TV channels refuse to pay Desmond papers for listings
Richard Desmond believes he is giving TV broadcasters free publicity.
TV channels including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are risking services disappearing from TV listings pages in the Express after they refused to accept owner Richard Desmond's demands that they pay for the privilege.
They told him they would not pay the millions of pounds being demanded of them and now risk having their digital services being removed from the listings page.
Digital channels including BBC3, ITV 2 and E4 are being asked to pay more than £150,000 a year to have their schedules printed in the Daily Express and the Daily Star. Express group bosses said the new fee system was "entirely fair and equitable".
But channel bosses, who have traditionally never had to pay for listings space, have joined forces to reject the new charge and face a blackout from today in both the Daily Express and the Daily Star, as well as other Richard Desmond publications including OK! magazine.
"This is grossly unfair," said one broadcaster. "The fallout will be enormous."
Mr Desmond, however, believes, he is giving TV broadcasters free publicity and thinks they should pay, particularly when many channels can't even get listed because of space restrictions.
His determination is underlined by the fact that rival papers refuse to take listings for his Fantasy TV and he believes if he can change the relationship between papers and TV channels, rivals will be unable to refuse him the right to buy a slot for his soft porn channels.
He believes it is legitimate to continue to carry the five terrestrial channels for free because it is giving added value to reader and is one of the reasons to but the newspaper.
But multichannel broadcasters were told they would have to pay £600 a day for listings in both the Daily Express and Daily Star, or £388 a day for the Express alone, or £288 for the Daily Star. Weekend listings will still be provided free of charge. Year-round coverage in the Express and Star would cost £156,000.
Channels affected include the digital channels run by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, as well as MTV, UK Gold, Living TV, Eurosport, Discovery, the Disney channel, and many more.
Sky-owned channels such as Sky One are also understood to be affected. The deadline for agreeing the new system of payments expired today.
In a letter to channel heads earlier this month, the Express group joint managing director, Stan Myerson, said the fees were "entirely fair and equitable" and said he had received a "positive reaction so far from certain channels".
But broadcasters contacted by MediaGuardian.co.uk said they had refused to pay the new charges and expected to be dropped from the listings in the Star and Express as a result. The two papers have combined sales of nearly 2 million copies a day.
"It is pretty much a united front because we all feel the same way about this," said one broadcaster. "TV listings are a service to readers and they expect to see them in the paper. In return [for listings coverage] we give them stories, pictures, preview tapes and great editorial opportunities."
"It kind of sums up the Express group approach," said another channel executive. "It doesn't make much sense, because it is widely known that TV pages are one of the main selling points on papers. It shows a real contempt for their readers."
A BBC spokeswoman said: "Under no circumstances will we use licence fee payers' money to tell viewers about the free channels that they have already paid for."
Much of the Daily Star's sales success over the last few years has been down to its saturation coverage of hit reality TV shows such as Big Brother, Wife Swap, and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!. The paper, edited by Dawn Neesom, would undoubtedly suffer if broadcasters retaliated by withholding preview material and access to their stars.
"It makes it very difficult for us to persuade artists who are not always keen on doing publicity to work with newspapers and magazines that are not navigating the audience towards their shows," said a channel insider.
The decision to introduce fees for TV listings has echoes of another money-making initiative introduced by Mr Desmond last year.
Callers to the group now have to phone an "0871" number which costs 10p a minute. The company said at the time it was common practice for big commercial organisations to use the premium rate number.
An Express spokeswoman said: " We are in the process of changing our television listing pages. There will be a charge applicable as of February 21 2005 for promoting television programme listings in the Daily Express and Daily Star, Monday to Friday."
But one TV insider said broadcasters would do without the papers if they had to. "TV listings are still important but a lot more people are using the EPG these days, and listings magazines are booming. Newspaper listings are only one part of the market."
mediaguardian
