A Five spokesman denied that the move signalled a downsizing of Five's marketing operation, insisting the budget would be maintained at between £8m and £10m a year, which includes about £2m for the digital channels, Five Life and Five US.
Opie has prior marketing experience from her previous employer Flextech, where she also combined the content and marketing roles.
Scott's responsibilities are being broken up, with the Research and Insight team that focused on qualitative research into audiences now moving into Five’s sales operation and now reporting to director of knowledge David Harrison. He is also responsible for quantitative advertising research.
Scott also headed development of website extensions for the TV channels, but this responsibility has already been moved into a new digital division overseen by head of digital media Jon Lewis.
Scott was appointed marketing director of Five in March 2005, joining from the BBC, where she was controller of TV marketing, strategy and channel development, and oversaw the marketing launch of Five's digital channels. She left Five without a job to go to. The remaining most senior marketing executive is head of marketing Simon Downing, who now reports to Opie.
Opie said she would deliver a refresh of Five's on and off-air marketing in 2008. She added: "Never has it been so important to align brand with content as the market becomes increasingly crowded."
Five's advertising agency roster is VCCP for creative, Vizeum for media and Digit for interactive design. During the past year, it spent £11.6m on media, including the launch of the digital channels, according to Nielsen Media Research.
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