It is understood that ITV Customer Relations managing director Gary Digby has indicated that a review of ITV's operations by consultant Boston Consulting Group is likely to lead to as many as 100 redundancies from ITV's commercial team.
One senior TV sales source said: "The pressure will be on high-profile individuals. Boston Consulting will have looked at the revenue per head in each department, but the issue for ITV sales is they [still] need a support business. Perhaps BCG is taking an over-simplistic approach."
Another senior TV sales executive said that he expected "between 60 and 100" redundancies from the ITV commercial team.
An ITV spokesman said there were "no confirmed or approximate [redundancy] figures" available and there would be "no clarity on the outcomes until September".
On a conference call to discuss its results for the first half of 2008 last week, ITV executive chairman Michael Grade told Media Week that Boston Consulting Group's review was "ongoing" and that the ITV management team was still in discussions with staff about its proposals.
ITV expects to make £11m in cost savings from its broadcast operations in 2009, and £9m from its global content business, which exploits ITV's own content overseas. Of the £41m in savings pencilled in for this year, ITV said £6m would come from staff restructuring.
Last week, the broadcaster confirmed that it expects TV ad revenues for September to be down 20% year on year, with the total TV market expected to be down 17%. ITV estimates that total ad revenue for the eight months to August will be down 1% year on year.
Numis analyst Paul Richards said any redundancies at ITV were "a reflection" of the pressure the business is under. "Desperate times call for desperate measures," he said.
Last month, Media Week reported that ITV's 13-strong planning team would be streamlined, and that its expanding online sales activities would start to work closely with ITV's other sales departments.
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