ITV freezes salaries of top staff

Company pushes for product placement

By STEVE CLARKE

LONDON — ITV, Blighty’s biggest private terrestrial web, has frozen the pay of senior staff as the company faces another wave of belt tightening.

All staff earning more than £60,000 ($85,000) a year — around one in 10 employees — will get no pay hike this year.

Those further down the pecking order, all those paid more than £25,000 ($36,000), will receive below-inflation increases.

The measures mean that toppers Michael Grade, executive chairman, John Cresswell, chief operating officer, and Rupert Howell, managing director, brand and commercial, will continue to have their pay frozen at 2007 levels.

The web is in the throes of cutting around 1,000 jobs and more cuts are in the cards.

Meanwhile, Howell has made another plea to the British government to relax restrictions that ban product placement in U.K. TV shows.

He said that ITV is “scrapping for its life" and that any extra coin in such a tough advertising market would be hugely welcome.

Howell said: “It probably won't amount to much (to start with), but neither did sponsorship, and that now brings in £50 million ($71 million) a year.

“We are scrapping for our lives at the moment. We need every source of revenue possible — I don't care how small it is. We need it.

“We are counting the pennies, not just pounds. Every little helps."

British policymakers are reviewing product placement rules, following a European Union directive relaxing the restrictions, but U.K. media minister Andy Burnham has said he is against the practice.