Responsible for advertising revenues of £1.4bn last year, ITV Sales is to be renamed ITV Customer Relations.
The broadcaster, which claims it is the first to set up a dedicated planning division, is ditching its existing three external facing sales teams, currently headed by sales controllers Ben Allen, Simon Orpin and Jeremy Lawrence.
They will be replaced with two new departments, a trading team and an integrated planning team.
ITV Sales director Simon Lent is to become trading director, continuing to report to sales MD Gary Digby. The trading team will be split into two, with each division handling 50% of agency business.
ITV is looking to appoint an integrated planning director, along with two account directors and 10 other planners, and is looking at external as well as internal candidates.
Digby said: "Any broadcaster who thinks they are going to just sit in the trading room and grow their business is away with the fairies. We need to put the majority of our resources into the planning side. The trading function is at the end of the process once clients have already decided where they are spending their money. We need to be in at the start of the process."
The restructure, effective from January, comes with up to £140m of ITV1 revenue under threat due to the terms of the Contract Rights Renewal mechanism in this winter's trading season.
Brand partnerships director Gary Knight will continue to spearhead sponsorship, online, interactive and mobile, reporting to Digby. Advertising development director Nicky Buss will continue to report direct to ITV commercial director Ian McCulloch.
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