CLOSE-UP: LIVE ISSUE/CONTENT - Advertisers turn to content to further their brands. Advertiser-funded TV can become a real alternative to ads.(Brief Article)

Robin Azis, the former chief executive of HHCL & Partners, is very excited about content creation. Last week he left the familiar comfort of agency life to set up a new venture in partnership with the production company Jane Fuller Associates.

The new company, The E-Factor, will bring together brand marketing budgets with new TV programmes, films and events in a bid to move on from above-the-line advertising.

While Azis is a high-profile member of the agency community to jump ship, he is by no means the first. Advertiser-funded television and content creation are areas rich in ideas and cash, as companies seek to bond with their target audience in ways other than a 30-second commercial or poster campaign.

In 2001, the UK's pounds 3 billion commercial TV advertising market shrank by 12 per cent. What also fell was ITV's revenue, by 15 per cent, and TV audiences. According to Barb, adult audiences on ITV fell by 5.4 per cent in 2001.

So for cash-rich clients, there are fresh opportunities for forging relationships with viewers with the use of editorial airtime, and for those who create the concepts, make the programmes, distribute and air them, there's a big revenue stream to be tapped. The management consultancy Arthur D Little predicts advertisers could spend up to pounds 1.3 billion on funding their own programmes by 2005 - at the moment, they spend just pounds 15 million each year.

The idea of advertisers making their own programmes isn't new - the US soap operas of the 50s were funded by detergent manufacturers. In the UK, Heinz funded Heinz Superchamps, a sports and activities programme aimed at children, and way back in 1994 Ford televised The Big Race to launch the Mondeo.

But agencies on both the creative and media sides are preparing to probe the medium much more deeply. Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Entertainment company struck a deal with MindShare last year to form Shine:M, and Bates UK has a dedicated unit for TV content creation, Bates Widescreen, which was behind B&Q's Real DIY Show of last year.