• by Wayne Friedman , February 14, 2006

MTV Networks is making more executive changes--but this latest move is an expected one, according to industry executives.

Larry Divney will leave his post as president of advertising sales for MTV Networks in April. Divney came out of retirement in October 2004 to help MTV realign its advertising sales divisions.

Divney will take on a full-time, three-day-a-week consulting role for the rest of the year. An MTV spokesman had no comment. Executives say as yet there won't be a replacement for Divney's position, but Michael J. Wolf, who joined MTV Networks as president-COO, late last year is known to have taken an active role in day-to-day advertising sales, devoting as much as 50 percent of his time on the critical revenue area. Previously, Wolf was a highly regarded media industry management consultant at McKinsey.

Divney is the fourth senior executive to leave Viacom's cable division since the start of the year, when it split from CBS. Viacom research executive Betsy Frank left in January--and like Divney, will continue consulting to the company. Just before Frank's departure, Herb Scannell, president of Nickelodeon Networks, announced his exit. Also in January, Jeff Dunn, COO/president of Nickelodeon Film and Enterprises, left the company.

But, executives say, Divney's departure was planned--structured when taking on the job in October 2004.

Other ad executive changes at the company: At the end of last year, Ron Furman, who was senior vice president of advertising sales for MTV Networks, left after just a few months on the job. He came over from a senior executive advertising position at Univision. VH1 ad executive Sean Moran replaced him. He reports to Hank Close, executive vice president, music group and comedy ad sales for MTV Networks.

Executives say many of these changes stem from a major reorganization plan following Wolf's appointment, but that Divney's retirement plans likely preceded Wolf's appointment. As consultants, Divney and Frank are slated to help MTV Networks through the upfront process.

Last year, MTV Networks started the upfront process looking to command 9 percent cost-per-thousand viewer [CPM] increases--only to settle for lower deals. Divney was part of this strategy.

ABC had a hand in how most networks--broadcast and cable--performed last year, as media buying executives looked to ABC as the market leader. ABC came up with a more modest 5 percent increase--and all networks, including cable networks such as MTV--came into line under ABC's benchmark.

But one senior media buying executive said MTV's goal of 9 percent price hikes was actually just a starting point--that, as part of the negotiation process, its realistic goal was indeed closer to where the market ended up--which was anywhere from 3 percent price increases for some networks to as high as 6 percent or 7 percent for more deserving networks.

A long-time veteran of cable advertising, Divney started out initially at MTV in the early 80s. He also held posts as CNN, Turner Broadcasting, ESPN, A&E, and Comedy Central, where he ran the network as president and CEO from 1998 to 2004.