CSA board to disband following sale

Once current owner ITV completes the £500,000 sale of the company to Digital Cinema Media, a new company formed by Odeon Cinemas and Cineworld Group, three key CSA executives will step down.

Managing director Trevor Davies, sales director Adam Mills and financial director David Ives will step down. The three board members will be staying at ITV to head the distribution parts of the business that were not sold to Odeon Cinemas and Cineworld Group earlier this year, according to a senior broadcasting figure close to the company.

The sale process is expected to officially complete on 3 July, after the Competition Commission's investigation has finished. Digital Cinema Media will use Carlton Screen Advertising as its trading name for a short time while the handover process is carried out.

The newly formed company, equally owned by the two cinema groups, will be without a sales or finance director. However, Debbie Chalet, CSA's former chief executive, has been recruited to fill the same role at Digital Cinema Media.

Davies, Mills and Ives were CSA's only board members and will be running the two distribution businesses that Digital Cinema Media did not purchase - National Screen Service and a distribution company that sends out film reels around the UK - as well as the CSA Ireland business.

Prior to the sale, CSA had been operating at a loss, having been locked into advertising commitments it made with cinema outlets more than two years ago.

Since signing the deals, CSA and its main rival Pearl & Dean have struggled to make a profit amid a tough advertising climate and aggressive bidding between the two competitors for client contracts.

ITV was not available for comment at the time Media Week went to press.