• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 11, 2006

The biggest independent media services agencies in three major markets - the U.S.' Horizon Media, Canada's Cossette Media and the U.K.'s BLM - have joined with independents in 13 other nations to form Columbus Media International. With combined media billings of $4.2 billion, the new global media network will operate in 18 territories, including North America, Europe, Russia and Asia Pacific. Operating from two central hubs - New York and London - the group will be headed by BLM's Nick Lockett, who serves as chairman; and Horizon's Bill Koenigsberg and Cossette's Pierre Delagrave, who serve as vice chairmen.

Columbus' founders said it was conceived following an independent study by EMM International, which found dissatisfaction among international marketers with their multinational media agencies and offers a real opportunity for an alternative solution. Specifically, the research pointed to concerns among major marketers that the consolidation among multinational agencies is reducing choice and quality of service, that media agency networks lack media-buying transparency and that they are failing to integrate online and digital platforms into schedules.

Horizon, which has emerged as a significant global player, with operations in Amsterdam, itself ranks as the 13th largest media-buying agency in the U.S. with $1.3 billion in projected 2006 media billings, according to revised estimates released last week by RECMA. However, even with $4.2 billion in worldwide billings, Columbus will be an also-ran on a global scale, ranking somewhere below the top 11 global media networks, according to RECMA's data. Omnicom's PHD network, the 11th-ranked global media agency network, currently has an estimated $5.64 billion in worldwide media billings.

The RECMA data also points to a huge opportunity for a new independent challenger brand, noting that the top 11 global media agency networks currently account for only $195.1 billion in media billings, or about 56 percent of the worldwide market for media buying and planning services.

"Columbus provides the ideal solution," Horizon's Koenigsberg boasts in the group's statement. "We are able to provide our clients with the best service in every market. We have been able to personally evaluate and select the best media agency in every market so that our clients don't have to."

Horizon, Cossette and BLM own 51 percent of the venture, with smaller affiliates splitting the balance.