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Atlanta — Cisco Systems has phased out the 56-year-old Scientific Atlanta brand two years after buying the company — even replacing the signage at SA’s headquarters with the Cisco logo about two weeks ago.

The networking giant has also restructured the management team for what is now called the Cisco Service Provider Video Technology Group (or VTG for short).

Jim McDonald, who had been CEO of Scientific Atlanta since 1993, has moved out of day-to-day management responsibilities and will be “in more of an advisory role” to Tony Bates, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Service Provider Group, who oversees the Video Technology Group, spokeswoman Sara Zavala said.

Two executives are now managing the Video Technology Group: Michael Harney, corporate senior vice president and president of the Subscriber Networks unit; and Dwight Duke, corporate senior vice president and president of Transmission Network Systems.

— Todd Spangler

New York — There’s a new player in the hunting/fishing/adventure field. Maximum Adventure Network soft launched Jan. 30, offering programming from the realms of boating, all-terrain vehicles, four-wheeling and hunting and fishing. The network has rolled out on DirecTV’s basic tier at channel 608, according to executives at both parties.

MAN, owned by Televisual Net Works, is led by founder and president Michael Khlar, who headed a similar service, Men’s Outdoors and Recreation Network, which at one point had distribution on Time Warner Cable, DirecTV and Dish Network. However, MOR’s parent, The Media Group, filed for Chapter-11 bankruptcy protection last summer, after EchoStar dropped MOR and its other programming services.

Deal terms were not disclosed. However, MAN, which does not charge a license fee, allows carriers to share revenue splits from its transactional fare. Khlar, in an interview conducted last Friday, said DirecTV did not have an ownership stake in the network “as of today.”

Khlar said MAN anticipates having additional carriage through cable operators, perhaps as early as June.

MAN currently offers 16 hours of programming daily, including such shows as Relentless Pursuit and Best of the West.

— Mike Reynolds

New York — Young men in their 20s and 30s aren’t necessarily the same sports-loving, babe-chasing creatures as their forefathers. That’s what G4 hopes to prove in a survey it’s commissioning that it expects will show the more tech-oriented behaviors of today’s 18-34 males, according to G4 president Neal Tiles. The survey, dubbed “Hunting With Light Sabers,” will be released this fall.

“We think we understand that the classic definitions of young male appeal are not fully capturing this demographic,” Tiles said.

Tiles added that February marked the 15th straight month of audience growth among the male 18-to-34 demo.

The Comcast-owned network has also green-lit a second season of its reality series The Block about snowboarders.

— R. Thomas Umstead

Los Angeles — Hulu.com launched last week with TV and movie content from some 50 partners including parents Fox and NBC Universal. Cable networks in the mix included NBC U’s Sci Fi and Bravo, National Geographic Channel and Comcast’s E!, whose series The Girls Next Door provided one of the most popular video clips in the site’s debut.

But Hulu lacks content distribution deals with Disney-ABC Television Group, CBS, Viacom and Turner Broadcasting System.

The site has indexed thousands of episodes and clips from TV programmers with which it has no formal deals, providing “deep links” that shuttle users off to external Web video players.

Hulu visitors can find links to shows and clips from ABC (Desperate Housewives and Lost); Nickelodeon (SpongeBob SquarePants); Comedy Central (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart); and TBS (Frank TV), among others.

— Todd Spangler

New York — Veteran MTV Networks executive John Sykes said he’s leaving his job trying to launch new networks for MTVN in hopes of finding a company he can run.

Sykes, who ran VH1 in the mid 1990s and the Infinity Broadcasting radio operation until 2005, said last week that he asked out of his position as president of network development after two unsuccessful years of trying to launch several multiplatform services targeting viewers 35 years and older.

Sykes rejoined Viacom-owned MTVN in 2005 to spearhead the development of new cable networks and online services. He said he’s already had “informal conversations” with several digitally based companies, but would not reveal further details.

He also wouldn’t rule out a return engagement to cable.

In announcing Sykes’ departure, MTV Networks CEO Judy McGrath hailing her longtime colleague for his “creative leadership, bold thinking and social responsibility.”

For more on Sykes’s legacy and future plans, in his own words, see this week’s 5:4 on page 37.

— R. Thomas Umstead

New York — Pat Mitchell, CEO of The Paley Center for Media announced the appointment of J. Max Robins as vice president and executive director of the Paley Center’s Media Council and International Council, effective April 7, 2008.

Robins is former editor in chief of Broadcasting & Cable, a sister publication to Multichannel News.

Previously known as The Museum of Television & Radio, the Paley Center was founded by William S. Paley in 1975 to collect, preserve, and interpret television and radio programming and to make these programs available to the public.