Coda

History Treks to 'Africa’

New York — Expedition Africa, History’s eight-part series from Mark Burnett Productions, follows a team of explorers as they trace the journey of Henry Morton Stanley and his quest for the “lost” Dr. David Livingstone. Besides trekking from Zanzibar to Tanzania, the series will also take Comcast, Time Warner and Cox subscribers beyond the linear service via a host of supporting on-demand and broadband content.

While the show debuts May 31 on History, digital-cable subscribers will be able to see the premiere — in standard or high definition — on video on demand the week before. Subsequent installments will go to VOD after bowing on the network.

There also will be an array of short on-demand content, and the operators’ broadband services will host video fare such as explorer bios, a look “Inside the Expedition” and “Dangers of the Wild” segments.

Road Runner and Cox.net subscribers can access a survival challenge quiz and photo hunt, while visitors to fancast.net can gaze through a large photo gallery.

“This is a beginning of a vision of the affiliate marketing team at AETN, where we want to bring brands, viewers, programming and affiliate content together,” said AETN senior vice president of distribution, business development and marketing Mark Garner.

“It’s really a showcase for the programming and what we want to do with great content on all our platforms,” said Comcast vice president of video content Diane Kerekes.

Promotional spots on History and tags across the platforms will help drive users back and forth between the linear, VOD and broadband content. That process goes into full swing May 24, according to Garner, who added that the idea is to “make it 360-degree experiential.”

— Mike Reynolds

EchoStar Slings iPhone App

Englewood, Colo. — EchoStar’s Sling Media announced the availability of its SlingPlayer Mobile application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. Priced at $29.99, the app works only over a Wi-Fi connection, as AT&T says “slinging” TV violates its terms of service and would chew up too much bandwidth.

AT&T issued a statement last week saying that the Slingbox application “would use large amounts of wireless network capacity, could create congestion and potentially prevent other customers from using the network. The application does not run on our 3G wireless network. Applications like this, which redirect a TV signal to a personal computer, are specifically prohibited under our terms of service.”

The SlingPlayer Mobile application provides Slingbox users full access to their cable or satellite TV set-top box, including local channels, video on demand and the ability to watch and control their home digital video recorder.

Sling Media announced the iPhone app in January at CES.

— Todd Spangler

Changes At Clearwire

KIRKLAND, WASH. — Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow announced the appointment of three executives and the departure of COO Perry Satterlee.

The cable-backed broadband wireless company’s new executives are chief commercial officer G. Michael Sievert, chief information officer Kevin Hart and chief people officer Laurent Bentitou.

Former president and chief architect Barry West will now head the international division.

Clearwire also announced a deal with Cisco Systems, which will be the preferred vendor for IP networking equipment for the carrier’s WiMax network.

— Todd Spangler

Bresnan Names COO

PURCHASE, N.Y. — Bresnan Communications said executive vice president of operations Steve Brookstein has added the title of chief operating officer.

The company said Brookstein has had primary responsibility for the operations of its cable television systems and oversaw the rollout of advanced services.

— Kent Gibbons

CTHRA Picks Honorees

NAPERVILLE, ILL. — The Cable and Telecommunications Human Resources Association announced its 2009 Excellence in Human Resources award recipients. This year’s HR Best Practice Award honoree is Comcast’s Human Capital Management Team; and CTHRA’s Leadership and Excellence Award went to Jack Jackson, vice president of administration and human resources for C-SPAN.

CTHRA and awards sponsor Multichannel News will honor Jackson and the Comcast team at a June 9 luncheon in Silver Spring, Md.