Fiona Ramsay, Media Week, 08 July 2008, 07:30am

MySpace's Parboo joins ITV online sales

LONDON - Former MySpace executive Richard Parboo has joined ITV as head of agency sales strategy in the broadcaster's online sales team.

Richard Parboo: ITV's new head of agency sales strategy

Reporting to Gary Cole, ITV head of online revenues, Parboo has joined the broadcaster from Fox Interactive Media, which oversees the internet businesses of News Corporation, such as MySpace.

Parboo was one of MySpace's first commercial hires during its UK sales push in 2006, taking up the role of senior manager of network sales, EMEA. He has also been head of sales for migration marketing at Unanimis and a sales manager at AOL.

The appointment comes as ITV attempts to boost its online sales activity. Parboo's appointment follows the departure of Colin Ramsay, ITV's head of online sales, last month after a 15-year career with the broadcaster.

ITV's online sales team has been charged with driving forward the broadcaster's online and broadband ventures such as ITV.com, Friends Reunited and ITV Local. The overall aim is to generate £150m in online revenue by 2010.

Gary Knight, brand partnerships director at ITV, said Parboo's appointment was "testament to ITV's expanding portfolio of online propositions".

He added: "Richard brings a vital new dimension to our online sales team with a wealth of digital experience, especially in the social networking domain. His expertise will be invaluable as we monetise the new volumes of traffic created by the Friends Reunited free proposition."