Lighting is currently chief executive of content at Flextech. Her appointment at Five should be confirmed in the next week, despite reports that Milligan was in the frame. But friends of Milligan said he decided never to be interviewed for the chief executive role.
Instead, Milligan is thought to be holding out for a role heading and restructuring a merged sales operation in the event of further sales house consolidation. This could involve combining any two sales houses from Channel Four/Five and Sky. In addition, Dawn Airey, new head of Sky Networks, is thought to be keen to get Milligan on board.
ITC regulations forbid any licensees with a national TV advertising market share of over 5% to merge. This would rule out any merger between Five and Sky, or Five and Channel 4. But if Carlton and Granada are allowed to merge, there will be pressure to change the rules.
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