He will take over from Liddiment, who leaves ITV at the end of the year without any new job to go to. Picard is described as the man who brought Bill and Ben and Basil Brush back to TV, and is currently responsible for commissioning, production and scheduling at BBC children's television. He oversaw the launch of the Corporation's digital channels CBBC and CBeebies.
Before joining the BBC, Pickard was controller of children's and youth programmes at ITV, a role he took up in 1998. Aged 50, he has many years experience in the industry, previously having been vice-president of production and general manager of Challenge TV and The Maidstone Studios for Flextech Television. He has also been a director of programmes at the Family Channel.
After years dominating advertisers' schedules, ITV has faced a tough year. Most recently, the network faced the humiliation of seeing Channel 5 chief executive Dawn Airey reject its offer to become chief executive of ITV in favour of the managing director role at Sky Networks - reportedly for less money than ITV had offered.
Parent companies Granada and Carlton Communications have been criticised by shareholders over the losses incurred by ITV Digital, which closed earlier in the year. Now as the companies negotiate a £2.6bn merger, advertisers are threatening to desert ITV.
ITV's programming budget has just been increased by £100m, bringing its annual budget to £836m.
Mick Desmond, joint managing director of ITV said: "Nigel is a great appointment for ITV. He has a wealth of experience in commercial broadcasting plus a successful track record in both children's and multi-channel television, two of the most competitive areas of the business. We are delighted he is returning to ITV in this key role."
According to Pickard: "I have enjoyed my time at the BBC immensely, but the chance to return to ITV when the corporate focus is so clearly back on the core channel business is something I just couldn't turn down."
The early part of his career was spent in production roles with TVS and Southern Television, both ITV companies.
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