Say hello to The Commercial Music Group.

The new Sony BMG Music Entertainment division will handle catalog recordings and classical music, as well as developing new opportunities in the areas of licensing, strategic marketing and TV, and will be headed by veteran exec John Ingrassia.

The division will include Legacy Recordings, the Strategic Marketing Group, the Custom Marketing Group, Television and Sony BMG Masterworks.

Ingrassia has been named President of the newly formed division by COO Tim Bowen, to whom he’ll report, based in New York.

Said Bowen: “The formation of the Commercial Group will enable us to implement comprehensive, long-term strategies designed to reach new audiences and create new opportunities for our vast catalog of archival recordings, as well as for our classical and entertainment divisions. John’s extensive experience at Columbia Records and recent cross-functional senior management roles at Sony BMG Corporate and the BMG Label Group make him the perfect person to lead this division and build new bridges between key recorded music and entertainment divisions, and the areas of custom products, licensing and television.”

Added Ingrassia: “I look forward to working with everyone in the Commercial Music Group, and with label groups and departments across the company as we identify new ways to build our business in both the physical and digital worlds. The creation of the Commercial Music Group represents an important step in integrating all of the different elements of our business, and in advancing our goal of establishing each one of the Group’s projects as a major entertainment event. Now when do I get my key to the executive washroom?”

Ingrassia is a long-time Sony Music executive and more recently, has been with the BMG U.S. Label Group. In 1998 he was named Columbia Records Group EVP, where he was in charge of the day-to-day operations of the Group, with responsibility for the Sales, International, Financial, Administrative, and New Technologies departments. Prior to that, he was Columbia Records Group SVP since 1996. Previously he worked in Sony Music Entertainment’s Business Affairs, A&R Administration, and Law departments, receiving his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1985. He graduated with a B.S. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1982.