IRISH MEDIA executive Dermot Hanrahan has acquired Carlton Screen Advertising, Ireland’s biggest cinema ad agency, from British listed broadcaster ITV for an undisclosed sum.

The deal was concluded in recent weeks.

Mr Hanrahan, who is chief executive of online ad sales business Electric Media, confirmed to The Irish Timesthat the sale had been concluded.

“It’s a good business and very similar to what Electric Media does,” he said. “Both of them are effectively sales houses.”

The Irish Times Ltd is an investor in Electric Media.

Carlton Screen Advertising is the market leader here in cinema advertising here, providing more than 370 screens to clients.

It is led by Eithne Billington and has about 15 staff. It was owned by ITV, along with a sister business in the UK, which was sold separately in 2008.

Latest accounts in the UK for Carlton Screen Advertising Ltd, which includes the Irish business, show that it made a pretax profit of £1.6 million on turnover of £40.3 million in 2008. This included a seven-month contribution from the UK operation. No breakdown of the Irish figures is provided.

Mr Hanrahan has been in the media industry for 18 years. He is a former chief executive and investor of Dublin radio station FM104.

He is currently chairman of Red FM in Cork, a board member of 4FM, a multi-city station that launched earlier this year, and a director of Folder Media which has been awarded nine digital radio licences.

Mr Hanrahan is a director of a new Dublin station Radio Nova, which is due to launch during the next 12 months.

Mr Hanrahan has also been involved in several online ventures. In 1996, he invested in Club Internet, an internet service provider.

Two years later he was an investing partner in the launch of Ireland's first digital agency, ICAN. He is an investor and executive chairman in Entertainment.ie, which numbers The Irish Timesamong its other backers.