McCONNELL’S Media Group and Publicis Groupe Media have formed a joint venture that they claim will be Ireland’s biggest advertising buyer.

McConnells MCM, AFA Precision, ZenithOptimedia, Mediavest and Starcom will combine their media buying activities under the umbrella of a company called Core Media Group.

The advertising groups said yesterday that they expect to have a combined turnover of €192 million in the first year of operation.

Each agency has a shareholding in a company called Bloodstone Media Ltd, which will trade as Core Media Group. It will be headed by advertising agency veteran Pat Donnelly, who has taken on the role of executive chairman and is also a small shareholder in the venture.

Mr Donnelly was a founder and chief executive of Aegis Media, one of Ireland’s biggest media-buying groups.

He retired from the company a few years ago and became chairman of Channel 6, the Irish television station that struggled for ratings and was acquired by TV3 last year.

Eddie O’Mahony has become trading director of the new group. Other board members include Alan Cox and Padraig Moran of Publicis, Damian Bell of McConnells MCM, Joe Dalton of Precision Media, Shay Keany and Claire Nardone of ZenithOptimedia.

In a statement released yesterday, Core Media said the joint venture would “harness the group’s buying power to provide critical mass to media negotiations”.

This move follows the merger of McConnells and AFA O’Meara in 2008 to form Ireland’s biggest advertising group.

Paul McCabe of McConnells said: “We have been reviewing our operations since the amalgamation of AFA and McConnell’s and we have been looking to address the challenges that we face in a more uncertain media environment. Media is now a business of scale and skill.”