Mark Rosenegk, head of sponsorship and interactive, and sponsorship manager Kevin Giles, left the company last week.
It is understood that the pair departed after deals made by the sponsorship team conflicted with ITV's overall sales strategy under Gary Digby, managing director of ITV Customer Relations.
Rosenegk rose through the sponsorship team at Granada Enterprises and signed up mobile phone handset company Nokia to a £3m sponsorship deal for talent show The X Factor in 2004, as well as Pedigree for This Morning's red button interactive campaign.
Agency sources claimed Rosenegk's team had strayed beyond its pure sponsorship remit.
"They packaged together airtime and sponsorship and went beyond their remit as far as Gary Digby was concerned," said one.
Another source said that ITV's recent sponsorship negotiations for Formula 1 had "brought the situation to a head".
One agency sponsorship head said: "It is very difficult to sell sponsorship as an open and transparent process."
ITV would not confirm or deny the departures or comment further. ITV has also lost sponsorship controllers Leigh Alexander and Ella Fletcher, who have moved to SPP, which handles Walker Media's sponsorship activity.
ITV confirmed it would recruit another sponsorship controller, after recruiting Bhavit Chandrani, formerly at Channel 4, to fill one of the two roles.
Sponsorship is of growing importance to all commercial broadcasters as they seek to offset declining spot TV revenues wrought by a fragmenting multichannel TV market.
According to ITV's full-year 2007 financial results, its sponsorship income increased by 6% in 2007 to £56m, compared with £53m a year earlier.
It said the growth was due to price increases as the cost of sponsorship "moves closer to airtime value".
Performance was also boosted by the successful sponsorship of new programmes and events, such as the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
It is understood that the pair departed after deals made by the sponsorship team conflicted with ITV's overall sales strategy under Gary Digby, managing director of ITV Customer Relations.
Rosenegk rose through the sponsorship team at Granada Enterprises and signed up mobile phone handset company Nokia to a £3m sponsorship deal for talent show The X Factor in 2004, as well as Pedigree for This Morning's red button interactive campaign.
Agency sources claimed Rosenegk's team had strayed beyond its pure sponsorship remit.
"They packaged together airtime and sponsorship and went beyond their remit as far as Gary Digby was concerned," said one.
Another source said that ITV's recent sponsorship negotiations for Formula 1 had "brought the situation to a head".
One agency sponsorship head said: "It is very difficult to sell sponsorship as an open and transparent process."
ITV would not confirm or deny the departures or comment further. ITV has also lost sponsorship controllers Leigh Alexander and Ella Fletcher, who have moved to SPP, which handles Walker Media's sponsorship activity.
ITV confirmed it would recruit another sponsorship controller, after recruiting Bhavit Chandrani, formerly at Channel 4, to fill one of the two roles.
Sponsorship is of growing importance to all commercial broadcasters as they seek to offset declining spot TV revenues wrought by a fragmenting multichannel TV market.
According to ITV's full-year 2007 financial results, its sponsorship income increased by 6% in 2007 to £56m, compared with £53m a year earlier.
It said the growth was due to price increases as the cost of sponsorship "moves closer to airtime value".
Performance was also boosted by the successful sponsorship of new programmes and events, such as the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
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