Starz Names Hirsch to Planning Role

Starz has named former Time Warner Cable executive Jeffrey A. Hirsch to the newly created position of president of global marketing and product planning, based in the company's Beverly Hills offices and reporting to CEO Chris Albrecht.

Hirsch’s responsibilities will include overseeing the development of new Starz products and services for the company’s current and prospective new distributors, both domestic and abroad, the company said in a release. Hirsch will be working in close coordination with the company’s strategy, distribution, marketing, and product planning teams with a focus on optimizing worldwide sales and revenue growth efforts and increasing Starz brand awareness through the company’s expanding portfolio of original programming, Starz said.

Hirsch most recently was executive vice president and chief marketing officer, residential services, at Time Warner Cable, where he has worked since 1999. Before that he worked at NYNEX in product bundling and McCann-Erickson in advertising. He received a Vanguard Award from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association in 2012.

“Jeff comes to Starz with sterling credentials and a proven, multi-discipline background in our industry that should prove to be a great asset. This is a period of rapid change in the total media business ecosystem and one of tremendous worldwide opportunity at Starz thanks to our successful transformation as a company,” Albrecht said in a release. “Jeff’s experience as a successful cable operator with one of our largest distributors, and his talents in marketing, product development and planning, sales, and operations, make him a great addition to our executive ranks.”

“Chris has done a remarkable job leading the evolution of the business at Starz the past recent years. The opportunity to become a key member of the Starz executive team and join a programming company whose prospects are rising both in the U.S. and overseas in an exciting new role is a tremendous opportunity,” Hirsch said in the release. 

Kent Gibbons

Kent has been a journalist, writer and editor at Multichannel News since 1994 and with Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He is a good point of contact for anything editorial at the publications and for Nexttv.com. Before joining Multichannel News he had been a newspaper reporter with publications including The Washington Times, The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal and North County News.