• by Wayne Friedman , September 5, 2018

Longtime ESPN senior advertising executive Ed Erhardt will retire in early 2019, with Disney-ABC senior ad executive Rita Ferro taking over his responsiblities and getting a new title.

Ferro has been named president of Disney Advertising Sales. She will now oversee all of Disney-ABC Television, as well as all of ESPN -- its domestic networks, in addition to ESPN on ABC, ESPN.com, ESPN3, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Radio, ESPN International, ESPN+ and ESPN Mobile.

ESPN pulled in $3 billion in national advertising from September 2017 to September 2018, according to iSpot.tv.

Ferro was named president, Disney|ABC advertising sales and marketing last year. She has been overseeing all advertising sales, marketing and ad revenue-generation for Disney’s entertainment, news, kids and family networks for its linear and digital TV and radio businesses.

In 2010, she became executive vice president, Disney media sales and marketing for Disney Channels Worldwide.

Erhardt, president of global sales-marketing at ESPN, has overseen advertising sales at ESPN since 1999. In 2015, he added responsibility for ESPN’s marketing and research groups. In 2010, he established an in-house, branded-content creative agencies, CreativeWorks -- one of the first, according to the company.

Erhardt created the first sports TV upfront. In 2007, he scheduled ESPN’s upfront presentation during the traditional broadcast upfront week.

Prior to ESPN, Erhardt was the longtime vice president-group publisher of Advertising Age.