MTVN Restructures TV Ad Sales, Silos Going Strong

MTV Networks’ digital media sales group will not be significantly affected by a new approach to selling the Viacom unit’s various audience segments.

Hot on the heels of its media brand realignment, MTVN has restructured its ad sales organization to focus on three separate segments in a move mainly involving its TV properties. The first group, structured around teens and young adults, will sell VH1, The N and MTV. The second, squarely focused on men and older adults, will handle Comedy Central, Spike TV, CMT and TV Land. The third, called Kids and Family, will sell Nickelodeon brands.

These “clusters” will operate side by side with Nada Stirratt’s digital sales unit, which should see only slight impact, as well as with MTVN’s Brand Solutions marketing integration unit and its Generator business development unit.

“The groups augment the work of these clusters,” an MTVN rep told me when I asked about the impact on digital sales. “This new way that we’re selling the channels by demographic does not supplant our digital sales division, which already sells psychographically across the unit.”

In other words, again, this deal is about TV, and I must say it reeks of silos: Hey guys, where’s the integration?