2008 CABLE SHOW: Greenberg Goes To Work As Chief Of Viacom-Led Premium Net
Ex-Showtime Exec Hits Ground Running At 2008 Cable Show
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, May 19, 2008
NEW ORLEANS—On Monday morning, just hours after being named president and CEO of a new Viacom-led premium network, Mark Greenberg was already on the floor of The Cable Show, hard at work.
Early Monday, Showtime and Home Box Office veteran Greenberg, as expected, was officially named chief of the premium entertainment joint venture that’s been formed by Viacom, its Paramount Pictures unit, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Lionsgate.
The service, first announced April 20, will create a pay TV network, broadband and on-demand service with theatricals, library titles and original TV shows.
Greenberg stopped by the MTV Networks booth on the convention floor to chat with Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman, who on Sunday was a panelist at the show’s opening general session.
Greenberg declined to comment before leaving the MTVN booth for appointments. But during an interview Dauman described why the joint venture picked Greenberg and how he will spearhead the hunt for distributors for premium service, which debuts in fall 2009.
“He was really the first and only choice for the partners,” Dauman said. “We knew him for a long time as a Viacom executive. I’ve known him personally for a long time. He’s been working with Lionsgate recently, so he has direct experience with two of the three partners. He has a long background and history in the pay television business, with a lot of knowledge and contacts in the industry. He is technology savvy.”
The joint venture doesn’t have any distributors on board yet as partners for the new service, but with Greenberg officially assuming his new role that process can ramp up, according to Dauman.
“We’ve already had a lot of discussions with potential distribution partners across many different industries, whether it’s cable companies, satellite companies, online companies, telcos,” Dauman said.
“There’s been a tremendous amount of interest in it,” he added. “Obviously, with Mark at the helm now, we’ll be able to have a much more focused effort. We’ve been listening to what the distributors are looking for in the service. We’ve been thinking about what the consumers want.”
Dauman said Greenberg, most recently working as a consultant, will follow through on those talks, which reportedly have included conversations with Blockbuster.
“The next several months what Mark will be busy doing will be to take these initial discussions with distributors and bring the right ones to conclusion,” Dauman said.
Greenberg will also be deciding on the “content mix” that the new premium service has when it launches, according to Dauman.
“There’s the issue of what movies to pick from the combined libraries of the three partners,” he said. “There’s the issue of what additional content to acquire from third parties. There’s the issue of what original series to greenlight. Each of the three partners has a number of ideas for original series for this service. Mark’s job will be to sift through all these great ideas and find the right one.”
Greenberg was formerly executive vice president for Showtime Networks. He also headed Showtime's sales and affiliate marketing. During his tenure at Showtime, Greenberg created and launched Showtime On-Demand, HDTV and other media properties, negotiating distribution partnerships both in the United States and abroad.
Additionally, Greenberg also led the company's sports and event programming group (SET) and pay-per-view initiatives, including Showtime's Boxing franchise. He joined Showtime in 1989 from HBO where he spent seven years in various sales and marketing positions, including Director of Direct Marketing.
Viacom will provide operational support to the joint venture, including marketing and affiliate services through its MTVN division.
“Mark will staff up as appropriate, focusing on the look and feel, content and marketing aspects of the service,” Dauman said. “But he will be able to rely on a lot of the infrastructure, support and marketing support that we can provide.”
The joint venture is committed to offering theatricals on the first day of their pay-TV window, unlike other premium services, according to Dauman.
“We think the movies should be available as soon as possible, every movie,” he said. “Every movie should be available on-demand. We are going to look for a lot of interactivity. We’re going to have these movies available to consumers when they want it, where they want it”
“That’s a theme you hear around the floor here, but it’s not the way movies are currently distributed in the pay window,” he added. “So we are looking at the most consumer friendly, the most content-rich premium service around.”
Greenberg was most recently the principal of MSGCI, a management consulting company specializing in content, distribution and sales strategies for digital media, entertainment and communications companies.
“This is an industry-altering opportunity to reinvent the premium television category and deliver first run movies, library content and original television programming in a way that takes full advantage of current and emerging technologies,” Greenberg said in a prepared statement for the press release announcing his appointment. “I am excited about working closely with our distribution partners to develop new and creative ways to deliver premium entertainment to consumers."
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