Reid to Depart Africa Channel

By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 2/6/2012 12:01:00 AM

Longtime cable executive and The Africa Channel executive vice president and general manager Bob Reid will retire from the industry to start up a new Africa-based production company.

Reid, part of the channel’s launch team in 2005, plans to develop an independent production company in Accra, Ghana, that will supply content to the network, officials said.

Reid’s nearly four-decade career in cable included a stint as executive vice president and general manager of Discovery Health Channel from 2001 to 2004, where he oversaw programming and production. He will leave The Africa Channel having struck distribution deals with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and others, picking up roughly 10 million subscribers.

A successor has not been named, but in the interim executive vice president of sponsorship and corporate development Mark Walton will oversee affiliate sales and marketing duties in addition to advertising sales. Executive vice president of programming Shirley Neal will continue to oversee programming, production and network operations.