Agency opportunity for Ondigital consumer PR

Ondigital, the digital broadcasting company which officialy

launched this week, has invited agencies to pitch for pounds 75,000 fee

consumer PR account.

The brief, which is likely to cover a six-month period, is to handle

consumer PR while the company builds its in-house team.

The four-strong in-house team is led by communications director, Jessica

Mann, and includes head of media and public affairs Andrew Marre, who

joined the company this summer from the Department of Culture Media and

Sport, where he was information director.

Ondigital, which is a joint venture between Granada and Carlton,

appointed Hill and Knowlton this spring to advise it on issues and media

relations on a project basis. H&K, which handled media relations for the

broadcaster’s official launch, is not pitching for the new account and

it is not expected to affect the agency’s work with Ondigital.

The company won the licence to operate terrestrial digital TV in the UK

in 1997. It is in competition with Sky Digital, which will offer 140

channels by satellite dish from this week.

Ondigital will offer viewers 30 channels from 15 November. Some of the

channels will contain programmes made by Granada, such as home shopping

channel Shop, and by the BBC, ITV and the new ITV2.