ITV appoints Archie Norman as Chairman

[El Gringo]

Archie Norman: From DIY to ITV
18 November 2009

Archie Norman, ITV's new chairman, certainly doesn't lack experience at heading high-profile businesses.
He has worked for companies such as Woolworths, DIY chain B&Q and supermarket group Asda.
He also has been involved with the even more every-day business of utilities, serving on the boards of British Rail and the power company Energis.
But perhaps it is his spell as a Conservative Party MP that will prove the most useful in his new job.

Time of change
He joins a company that has had a hard time in recent years. Despite great success with programmes such as Coronation Street and X Factor, Britain's biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster has struggled with both audiences and, crucially, advertising income.
Some might say he lacks experience as he has never worked in the media, although as a high-profile retailing boss and MP he certainly knows it from the receiving end.

His main usefulness though is something rarer than hands-on practice, and that is his closeness to the Conservative Party.
His contacts reach far back to the early years of his career when, after gaining an MA from Cambridge University and an MBA from Harvard, he became the youngest partner at the consultants McKinsey and Co. There, he met the young William Hague who later became the Conservative Party leader.
Mr Norman's most obviously pressing task is to end ITV's hunt for a chief executive - a role that has been unfilled for seven months.
But he will also be responsible for lobbying politicians and regulators at a time of immense change for broadcasters when many believe those decision makers will be the very people Archie Norman knows so well.
Wielding the baton
Analysts see many challenges ahead for broadcasters, not least in the field of regulation.
City insider David Buik, senior partner at BGC Partners, says Mr Norman's most important contribution will be made behind the scenes.
"At the end of the day he's the conductor of an orchestra. He has an address book thicker than the Encyclopedia Britannica,"
A relatively young man at 55, he said there were few opportunities that would have tempted him back into the public company arena.
He said the post presented "an irresistible challenge and a great brand". Some would say its his own brand that's being most closely watched at the moment.

I didn't think Energis was a power company......but where have we heard that name before?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4155160.stm
C&W to buy Energis
16 August 2005

Cable & Wireless has said it is to buy business telecoms provider Energis for an initial £594m ($1.1bn) in cash.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009...norman-profile
Archie Norman: straddling business and politics
18 November 2009

Eight years later Asda was sold to Wal-Mart for £6.5bn, handing investors an eightfold improvement in the share price and sealing Norman's golden reputation in the retail world. A later turnaround project was the telecoms company Energis, which was sold to Cable & Wireless for double the original value.

yes of course...a telecoms company.........i wonder when Archie was there sitting on the board and what sort business helped lead to a turnaround resulting in the doubling of the company's value.
ok

from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Norman
Although he survived the reshuffle after the failure of Hague, his long term intentions were clear when in 2002 he joined Energis as Chairman having led a consortium of banks in the purchase and refinance of the UK arm from the administrators of Energis Plc.

to at least
August 2005

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communicatio...9213394,00.htm

may be some clues can be found here
http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/output/default.aspx

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/upload/IQAutumn05.pdf
For those yet to subscribe, the table below offers a summary of the adjudications that have been posted on the site from 1 July to 30 September 2005:

Falcon Telecom, Energis Competition £10,000 fine, formal reprimand, bar
Dublin Communications on access & bar on operating
competition services

Mobile Entertainment Energis Prize claim £25,000 fi ne, bar on access & bar
Group, St Asaph Communications line on operating competition services

Prime Media Energis Competition £20,000 fi ne, formal reprimand, bar
Services, Communications on access & bar on operating
Bray (Ireland) competition services

Seashore Energis Prize claim £50,000 fi ne, bar on access & bar
Investments, Communications line on operating competition services
Panama

of course all within the rules.......Energis just supplied the premium rate lines and billing (revenue share) arrangements.

[gem]

What is it you are attempting (unsuccessfully) to say?

[El Gringo]

What is it you are attempting (unsuccessfully) to say?

Originally Posted by gem

pay attention gem, I will type it very slowly for you

http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/s...&postcount=211

and here are the guys Clarion Marketing (Iain McConnon, Gavin McConnon) who Archie Norman/Energis continually supplied lines and revenue share billing arrangements with,

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigat...m-promoco.html
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/...story13461.asp

The McConnon other 'preferred partners in crime' were Opera Telecom/Oxygen8

[gem]

My point was that you left a great long screed which few would probably read let alone understand. It would have come over better if you had been more direct.
It's taken you nearly a month to explain(!) it to me.

[El Gringo]

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigat...or-netpla.html
Scratchcard trouble for Netplay TV
FEBRUARY 26, 2009

Dodgy scratchcard competitions have cost Lancaster-based Abstract Games a £100,000 fine.

So-called winners had to make a £9 call to find out what prize they’d won. This automatically entered them into a subscription service that cost £2 or £2.50 a week.

PhonepayPlus, regulator for premium-rate phonelines, got complaints from dozens of people who said they’d been charged for unwanted texts.

Abstract Games, owned by online gambling firm Netplay TV plc, ran the games under the titles Fast Cash, Scratch and Match, Square Your Bill and Quids In.

The chairman of Netplay is Martin Higginson, former boss of Monstermob, who in the wake of the 2006 Crazy Frog ringtone scandal blamed competitors for bringing the premium-rate industry into disrepute.

Wonder what those competitors now think about Netplay?

A spokesman said: “NetPlay TV plc assisted PhonePayPlus, the premium rate ruling body, with its review of the premium rate subscription industry. On 23 June 2008 NetPlay TV announced that all services provided by the NetPlay Group should receive prior copy advice from PhonePayPlus.

"Abstract Games Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of NetPlay TV. Since January 2008, Abstract Games has consistently sought prior advice from PhonePayPlus on its premium service and has at all times complied with this advice. NetPlay TV/Abstract Games therefore consider PhonePayPlus’s fine of £100,000 on the grounds that the service is misleading to be wholly irrational, disproportionate and procedurally unfair. NetPlay TV is taking legal advice on the matter and intends to invoke its rights to have the allegations considered entirely afresh, this time at a full oral hearing.

http://www.c21media.net/news/detail....&article=55287
ITV puts money on Netplay
23 Apr 2010

UK commercial broadcaster ITV1 is to carry a block of late-evening interactive gambling formats from May, nearly three years after dropping similar shows The Mint and Quizmania.

ITV previously incurred financial penalties for premium-rate phone service offences committed during the airing of The Mint. Both it and Quizmania had disappeared from ITV1's schedule by March 2007.

But UK media regulations were relaxed last October to help cash-strapped public broadcasters, allowing for transactional gameshows to air on terrestrial networks under the guise of 'teleshopping' for the first time.

As a result, ITV has commissioned interactive gaming producer Netplay TV to produce a new bingo format called The Zone. The show will run for an initial six months, in what Netplay called a "teleshopping trial window."

Netplay CEO Martin Higginson said The Zone was a "fully approved and regulated product" that would allow viewers to "safely get involved in transactional TV games."

The 30-minute show will run up to six nights a week from next month, shortly after midnight. It will feature games such as bingo and keno, with viewers calling in to bet via premium-rate numbers or playing online to win prizes.

The company launched a 24-hour channel on British digital terrestrial platform Freeview in January 2009, becoming the first interactive gaming group to do so.

ITV1 will also launch Netplay's Roulette Nation, which currently runs on STV in Scotland and UK diginet Virgin 1, as part of the block.

ITV Chairman Archie Norman.....But he will also be responsible for lobbying politicians and regulators at a time of immense change for broadcasters when many believe those decision makers will be the very people Archie Norman knows so well.

ITV previously incurred financial penalties for premium-rate phone service offences committed during the airing of The Mint. Both it and Quizmania had disappeared from ITV1's schedule by March 2007.
But UK media regulations were relaxed last October to help cash-strapped public broadcasters, allowing for transactional gameshows to air on terrestrial networks under the guise of 'teleshopping' for the first time.

Netplay CEO Martin Higginson said The Zone was a "fully approved and regulated product" that would allow viewers to "safely get involved in transactional TV games."

What the hell are ITV thinking of picking a company like Netplay!...............what does it say about the rest of the 'industry' they could have chose from?
http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/08453892662
http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/81177
http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/87771

how many ' f 's in due-diligence?