Coda
by Staff -- Multichannel News, 1/18/2009 7:00:00 PM
Slingers Quit EchoStar
Foster City, Calif. — Five senior Sling Media executives, including founder and CEO Blake Krikorian, have resigned their positions about one year after the company was acquired by EchoStar.
News of Sling’s brain-trust exodus came just days after its technology captured considerable buzz at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, with Dish Network introducing the first high-definition DVR with place-shifting capabilities. The “SlingLoaded” ViP 922 HD DVR was awarded the “Best of CES” award by consumer-electronics reviews site CNET.
In addition to Blake Krikorian, executives resigning include: Jason Krikorian, Blake’s brother, who was senior vice president of business development; Greg Wilkes, vice president of sales; Jason Hirschhorn, president of the Sling Entertainment Group; and Ben White, chief creative officer of Sling Entertainment.
Hirschhorn confirmed the departures, which were first reported by PaidContent.org. EchoStar director of corporate communications Marc Lumpkin declined to comment on the departures.
“Sling is well-positioned to lead the business to the next level on multiple platforms, and we hope EchoStar allows the culture of innovation to continue,” said Hirschhorn in an interview. He added that he’s hoping to take some time off before considering his next gig.
EchoStar in September 2007 announced the deal to acquire Sling Media for cash and stock options worth $380 million.
Sling chief operating officer John Gilmore will take over management of the unit for now, according to Hirschhorn.
— Todd Spangler
Yaccarino Adds Turner Sales Duties
New York — Linda Yaccarino has been promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer of Turner Entertainment Ad Sales/ Marketing and Acquisitions.
Yaccarino, who previously served as executive vice president and general manager of Turner Entertainment Ad Sales, will continue to oversee all ad sales and sales marketing efforts for TNT, TBS and TruTV. Her added duties include oversight of program acquisitions for these networks, as well as Peachtree TV, Turner’s Atlanta broadcast station.
She will continue to report to David Levy, president of Turner Broadcasting Sales and Turner Sports, and Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks.
— Linda Moss
Rainbow Ups Carroll to COO
New York — Rainbow Media Holdings has promoted Ed Carroll to chief operating officer of Rainbow Entertainment Services.
Carroll, who has been president of Rainbow’s national entertainment services since December 2004, has operating responsibility for the AMC, IFC, WE TV and Sundance Channel networks.
He will continue to report to Josh Sapan, president and CEO of Rainbow Media Holdings, the programming subsidiary of Cablevision Systems.
“Ed has that rare combination of creativity and business acumen, and has been a key architect behind the recent original programming successes across our networks, particularly at AMC and WE TV,” said Sapan in a statement.
Carroll has held a number of positions at Rainbow including executive vice president and general manager of IFC from 2002 to 2004, and general manager of Bravo from 1997 to 2002, before it was sold to NBC in 2002.
— Mike Reynolds
Comcast Picks Up Retirement Living
Columbia, Md. — Retirement Living TV last week announced that it had reached a carriage agreement with Comcast.
“There is a heated battle for the hearts, minds, and eyeballs of the booming 50+ demo, and we’re thrilled that Comcast is joining RLTV so that the two companies together can enhance the television experience for this demographic,” said RLTV CEO Brad Knight.
RLTV, which is also available to Verizon FiOS subscribers, offers original programming on health, finance and other issues relevant to people age 50 and older.
“Comcast is proud to support Americans 50-plus with the kind of targeted programs that only RLTV offers,” said executive vice president of content acquisition for Comcast Matt Bond.
— George Vernadakis
Motorola Axes 4,000 More Jobs
Schaumburg, Ill. — Suffering from an ongoing collapse in mobile-devices sales, Motorola said it will lay off an additional 4,000 employees this year, in addition to the 3,000 it previously said it would cut.
Motorola also said fourth quarter 2008 sales would be $7.0 billion to $7.2 billion compared with an analyst consensus estimate of $7.5 billion.
— Todd Spangler
Discovery Execs Set Up Shop
Silver Spring, Md. — Led by Dawn McCall, ex-president of Discovery Communications’ international division, a number of former employees from that unit, have banded together to form a media consultancy.
International Media & Entertainment Partners — whose ranks also include Pandit Wright, former senior executive vice president of human resources and administration for Discovery Communications, and Barbara Bennett, former CFO and senior executive vice president of finance for Discovery Communications — will advise media clients on expanding internationally.
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