• by Wayne Friedman , Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 3, 2006

Who's replacing Larry Divney of MTV? Pick a big name--any big name. MTV Networks is searching far and wide to replace its most senior advertising executive with a major player, according to executives, who announced he was leaving in February.

"They are looking at a big name, and are talking to everybody," said one executive close to the situation. This includes the top C-level executives at some of the biggest media agencies and cable networks.

Divney announced he was leaving in February, but the likelihood is that MTV won't be hiring Diveny's replacement by the time the upfront hits in about six weeks. That means Hank Close, executive vice president of advertising sales for MTV Networks' Music and Comedy Group and Sue Danaher, executive vice president and general sales manager for Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, will be leading MTV's ad team through the upfront period, say executives close to the company. Michael J. Wolf, who joined MTV Networks as president and COO late last year from management consulting firm McKinsey, has said he would devote about 50 percent of his time to advertising sales, and likely will play a key role in its upfront strategy.

MTV executives did not return phone calls by press time for comment. Although Divney is committed to staying on through the upfront, it will be at a lower workload level. Officially, Divney will leave his post as president of advertising sales for MTV Networks sometime in April. Then Divney will scale back to a three-day-a-week consulting role.

MTV Networks, meanwhile, has lost another key strategist effective this week. Long-time research diva Betsy Frank, who has been consulting MTV Networks on its upfront strategy since stepping down as executive vice president-research and planning of parent Viacom earlier this year, has been named chief research and insights officer at Time Inc.

Last year, MTV hoped to price itself at high 9 percent cost-per-thousand viewer increases versus 2004 prices, but ultimately ended up with lower-priced deals. Divney was part of this strategy. Executives say there was nothing wrong with the network's initial pricing strategy of coming out seemingly too high, which is a common strategy heading into the upfront.

Divney came back to MTV Networks in October 2004 to lead the sales team temporarily through its transition of senior management changes. (He was one of the network's initial team of advertising sales executives back in the 80s. A year and a half ago, he was one of the first executives hired by Judy McGrath, who had just taken her new post as chairman of MTV Networks. In June 2004, Divney retired as president of Comedy Central.