UK commercial broadcaster ITV has put its remaining interests in cinema advertising company, Carlton Screen Advertising (CSA), into voluntary liquidation. It appointed Grant Thornton to handle the process on October 26.

It is unclear exactly what part of CSA is still owned by the broadcaster as a majority of the business has been sold off over the past two years.

In 2008, a joint venture between Odeon Cinemas and Cineworld Group acquired CSA’s UK business for £500,000 and relaunched it as Digital Cinema Media (DCM), while the Irish business was sold to media entrepreneur Dermot Hanrahan for an undisclosed sum in May this year. It still trades under the CSA brand.

DCM took a bulk of CSA’s business and now has more than 2,300 UK screens across chains including Odeon, Cineworld, Empire and IMAX. The Irish business has 419 screens and a 95% share of the market in the Republic of Ireland.

It is understood that many of the CSA contracts, including those remaining at ITV, have heavy minimum revenue guarantees with exhibitors, which is expected to lead to significant losses for those contracts affected.

ITV and Grant Thornton confirmed that a part of the business has been placed into liquidation but declined to comment on what contracts that includes or what stage the process is at.

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