Honda ad row tarnishes launch of Zip Television

New Media Age, July, 2004 by Jonathan Webdale

Honda is at loggerheads with ITV, Sky and Flextech/UK TV over interactive TV advertising, in a row which threatens to embroil other big brands and escalate into a full-scale stand-off costing media sales houses millions of pounds.

A war of words has erupted over the launch of Zip Television, the iTV advertising channel backed by some of the biggest names in advertising and due to go live tomorrow.

Honda is the first among an 11-strong consortium, including the COI, Procter & Gamble and Unilever, to run an iTV ad using technolgy and bandwidth from Zip TV.

It has pledged its full backing to Zip, which is aiming to offer advertisers a cheaper, more flexible iTV ad solution than the Sky offer that currently dominates the market.

But so far...