Marketing

New York -- The Weather Channel is planning for 2013-14 to be a season of transformation for the network, which will include 20 primetime series, up from eight in 2012.

Arts cable network Ovation has added two new executives as part of a restructuring of its programming and marketing divisions.

Evan Minskoff has been named senior vice president and head of marketing and brand strategy, while Douglas Strasnick is the new senior vice president in charge of programming and content strategy.Minskoff had been head of branding for the Gilt Groupe. Strasnick comes from social media company EQAL.

New York - Bravo Media has picked up 17 new unscripted series and renewed 18 returning shows, increasing its original programming slate by 15% over last year, the network announced at an upfront press breakfast here at NBCUniversal headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

The Coca-Cola Co. has inked a major sponsorship deal for its Coke Zero brand with ESPN’s College Football GameDay.

Coke Zero will serve as a showcase brand within College GameDay Built by the Home Depot, ESPN’s popular weekly college football program, when it returns to campuses around the country this fall.

FX Networks announced that it will launch a new network, FXX, on Sept. 2 that will form a suite of three channels along with movie channel FXM, and is planning to program them with an ambitious slate of 25 original series, an amount on par with the major broadcast networks.

At an upfront presentation for advertisers, John Landgraf, president of FX Networks, said the three channels will carry the FX brand and personality. Regardless of genre, “you know an FX original when you see it,” Landgraf said.