Fox elevates Toby Byrne to lead TV advertising sales

Fox Networks is consolidating advertising sales for its broadcast network and cable entertainment channels into a single group.

Toby Byrne, who has been in charge of ad sales for the Fox broadcast network and Fox Sports since 2010, will lead the new group, the company announced Tuesday.

Byrne now will also oversee ad sales for Fox’s general entertainment channels, including FX, FXX and the National Geographic channels.

Byrne’s new title is president of advertising sales for the Fox Networks Group. He will continue to report to Randy Freer, who is president and chief operating officer of the Fox Networks Group.

As part of the reorganization, Fox’s cable entertainment sales chief Lou LaTorre will report to Byrne.

Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network sales will continue to function as a separate unit, overseen by Paul Rittenberg. The divisions are all part of Rupert Murdoch’s media company 21st Century Fox.

The move comes amid an industry trend of declining advertising sales for general entertainment networks. Cable network ad sales for the new TV season were off by about 6% compared to last year.

In addition, Fox Broadcasting was bruised during the annual ad sales market in June because of its declining prime-time ratings. The network took in about $1.6 billion in commitments for prime-time commercial spots, which represented $200 million less than in 2013.

Several years ago, Comcast’s NBCUniversal combined its advertising sales for its NBC broadcast network and its cable channels after years of struggles and internal competition.

The move was intended to bolster sales for both the broadcast network and cable channels by offering ad agencies one-stop shopping and, thus, more coordinated buys.

In addition, the realignment also was intended to eliminate instances when account representatives from one group tried to grab business away from another part of the company.

Byrne joined Fox in 1996 as an account services representative. Before that, he was a media buyer at the BBDO agency in New York.

“The ad marketplace has changed dramatically in just the last few years,” Byrne said in a statement. “We no longer live in a linear, single-stream environment, and we need to structure our sales organization to thrive in the evolving media marketplace.”

Twitter: @MegJamesLAT