NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution has hired syndication advertising executive Barbara “Bo” Argentino as senior VP of advertising and media sales.

Ms. Argentino, who was an executive VP at Sony Pictures Entertainment, replaces Chris Kager, who has left NBCU.

In October 2004 Ms. Argentino was replaced as head of sales at Sony by Amy Carney. At that time Ms. Argentino was shifted into a new position overseeing multiplatform advertising projects.

More complicated, integrated deals will be an important part of her new job, she said.

“I’m happier doing sales and transactions that are a little bit more frequent and tangible,” Ms. Argentino said. “I’m at a place where there are more logical platforms here at NBC, there are more media platforms, whereas at Sony we were looking to create platforms out of properties that weren’t necessarily media.”

She said some multiplatform projects were in the works at Sony that may run over the next couple of months. “It’s a very slow developmental process,” she said.

Ms. Argentino will switch jobs just a week before the annual National Association of Television Program Executives convention, where NBCU will present its upcoming syndicated program “The Megan Mullally Show.” She’ll be involved in the pre-sell of advertising for the show, and after the convention she’ll cover the agencies and clients that don’t attend and she will get ready for the upfront.

The merger of NBC and Universal was particularly tough on the two companies’ syndication units, with several senior executives leaving before Barry Wallach was named president of NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution.

After another senior-level change, “I have no doubt it will be a short transition before we can get things stabilized,” Ms. Argentino said. “It can’t be easy when you’re merging and acquiring and being taken over, but my experience over the last 20 years in the business is you can’t count on anything to stay the same too long in the media business.”

Ms. Argentino was with NBC before joining Sony in 1994.

“I left NBC in the first place to go to Sony for a new opportunity, and I think it’s been long enough in one place and I’m happy to be rejoining NBC in a new capacity,” she said.