Nexstar Media Group said it appointed Tony Wells to the company’s board of directors, effective immediately.

Most recently Wells was  chief media offer at Verizon. 

He replaces Dennis Miller, who stepped down from the board when he was named president of Nexstar’s The CW network. 

“We are delighted to welcome Tony to the Board,” said Perry Sook, Nexstar Media Group’s Founder,  Chairman and CEO, “His deep knowledge of the national and local advertising landscape  developed over a career in which he deployed billions of marketing dollars for some of the country’s most  high- profile brands, will benefit Nexstar as we grow our national assets of The CW, NewsNation and The  Hill, and further leverage the largest local broadcasting footprint in the industry. 

Also Read: Fox Exec Michael Biard Jumps to Nexstar as President, COO

Over a 30 year career, Wells also served as chief brand officer for USAA and held marketing posts at Schneider Electric, ADT Security and 24 Hour Fitness. He currently serves on the board of Yelp.

“Nexstar’s unique and irreplicable asset mix, with its nationwide reach and role as the  nation’s largest local television broadcaster, offers advertisers a valuable marketing platform. I am  honored to join the Nexstar’s Board and look forward to sharing my experience and business relationships  with the Board and management team to expand the Company’s long-term record of success,” Wells said.

Warner Bros. Discovery said that former Scripps Networks Interactive president and CEO Ken Lowe will join the company’s board of directors, effective April. 2.

Lowe will replace former Liberty Media CEO Robert “Dob” Bennett, who is retiring from the board.

Lowe was CEO of Scripps Networks when it was bought by Discovery and was a member of the Discovery board until the company acquired WarnerMedia from AT&T to become Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022.

“Ken is a widely admired media visionary with tremendous experience in building, integrating and growing global media businesses,“ WBD board chair Samuel Di Piazza said. “His impressive track record includes his distinguished tenure as a member of the Discovery, Inc. board during a period of transformation following the Scripps acquisition. WBD will benefit enormously from his wisdom, background and history of stewarding global media companies during a time of transition and opportunity.

“As the company looks to advance its strategic priorities, Ken’s entrepreneurial spirit, deep industry knowledge and distinctive insights into the WBD brands make him a uniquely valuable addition to the board,” DiPiazza added.

Lowe led Scripps as it launched HGTV and Food Network, becoming a leader in the TV lifestyle programming category. As a WBD director, he will receive a stock retainer of $220,000 and a cash retainer of  $125,000, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bennett notified WBD of his intention to resign on January 4.

“Dob Bennett has been a hugely valued advisor and partner to our Board and to me on this exciting nearly two-decade journey of building Discovery, which culminated in our acquisition of the WarnerMedia business in 2022 to create WBD,“ WBD president and CEO David Zaslav said. “I am enormously grateful to him for his steadfast support, contributions and guidance that helped pave this path of long-term value creation for our stockholders.” ■

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida — ACA Connects said Monday (July 25) that it has re-elected chairman and vice chairman Patricia Jo Boyers and Mike Bowker to those positions for another two years, while five incumbent board members received new three-year terms. 

Boyers is president and CEO and co-founder of Boycom Vision, while Bowker is chief operating officer of Cable One, both member companies of ACA Connects.

“I am honored to continue as chairman of ACA Connects at a time when the challenges have never been more serious or consequential,” Boyers said in a press release. “As in the past, my role is to ensure that ACAC staff have the tools they need to work on our behalf and our members have all the information they need to ensure positive outcomes, especially as government broadband dollars begin to flow to the states.”

Small cable operators are facing several regulatory and legal challenges, including  major government action in promoting broadband deployment via the Commerce Department’s $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

“I’m very pleased to continue to serve with Patty Boyers in these important leadership roles at ACA Connects, an organization that protects and promotes the interests of more than 600 independent video and broadband providers in the hallways of government in Washington, D.C., and increasingly across the U.S.,” Bowker said. “With a massive influx of government broadband money on the way, we will do everything we can to ensure this funding is used wisely in helping close the digital divide.”

ACA Connects president and CEO Grant Spellmeyer thanked Boyers and Bowker for their leadership and dedication to the organization.

“As ACAC’s new leader, I am truly appreciative that Patty and Mike have agreed to work with me and the ACAC staff over the next two years to build on the many successes we had over the past few years,” Spellmeyer said. “With Patty and Mike at my side, I am confident that ACAC can meet the challenges ahead in advancing the interests of our members.”

ACAC’s election results were announced today at ACAC’s annual Members Meeting at the 17th Independent Show here. The Independent Show is a  gathering that unites a range of industry participants, including company leaders, informative speakers, tech vendors and various supporters of the independent video and broadband industry.

In other election results, ACA Connects also elected five incumbent members of its board of directors to new three-year terms: Leslie Brown, SVP and general counsel, Breezeline; Carla Framil-Ferran, VP of legal, Liberty Puerto Rico; Ed McKay, executive VP and chief operating officr, Shentel; Drew Petersen, SVP, corporate affairs, TDS; and Bob Wieand, controller, Service Electric Cablevision. 

“The Board of Directors elected today have the talent and deep experience that will surely translate into future success for ACAC. Their advice and guidance will be invaluable in telling our Members’ story and highlighting all the great things happening in their markets and communities fueled by a light-touch, investment-friendly regulatory environment,” Spellmeyer said. ▪️

Former Rogers Communications chairman Edward Rogers fired the latest salvo in his family’s ongoing Succession-like drama, filing a lawsuit in a Canadian court to uphold his decision to reconstitute the telecom giant’s board, a move family members strongly opposed.

“This is Canada’s Succession right now,” Richard Powers, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, told CBC News earlier this week, referring to the HBO show. “The fact that it's playing out in the media makes it all that more intriguing.“

According to a statement by the Rogers Communications board of directors, the British Columbia Supreme Court will hold a hearing on Nov. 1 to hear submissions by the company and the Rogers Control Trust (the Rogers family entity that controls 97% of the telecom company’s voting stock) regarding the legality of Edward Rogers’s attempt to replace five members of the Rogers Communications board. Edward Rogers, who also is chairman of the Rogers Control Trust, has argued that his action is compliant with British Columbia law and corporate bylaws. His family, sisters Martha Rogers and Melinda Rogers-Hixon and his mother Loretta Rogers have argued that the action is invalid because it was done through a written resolution and not a formal meeting of shareholders. 

“The company welcomes the opportunity for the Court to consider the importance to shareholders and all stakeholders of conducting a shareholders meeting to change the board of directors,” Rogers Communications said in a statement.

The ongoing Rogers family soap opera surfaced back in September, when it was learned that Edward Rogers was maneuvering behind the scenes to replace Rogers Communications CEO Joseph Natale with his confidant, chief financial officer Anthony Staffieri. But according to reports in the Toronto Globe & Mail, that plan — which also included the ouster of nine other Rogers executives -- was brought to light prematurely when Staffieri accidentally pocket-dialed Natale while discussing the corporate coup attempt with former company legal counsel David Miller. Natale contacted an independent director at the company, which triggered an emergency board meeting on Sept. 26, where the majority threw its support to Natale and his team. Three days later, on Sept. 29, Staffieri resigned as CFO and was replaced by long-time Rogers finance executive Paulina Molnar.

But it didn’t stop there. The Rogers board of directors, at the urging of board member and Loretta Rogers, moved to oust her son Edward as chairman, replacing him on Oct. 21 with long-time lead director and chair of the board’s corporate governance committee, John MacDonald. Not to be outdone, Edward Rogers fired five independent members of the 14-member board on Oct. 21 and replaced them with nominees of the Rogers Control Trust, which moved to return him to the Rogers Communications chairman seat.

“We are in the unusual position in which there seems to be two boards of Rogers Communications, the board we knew last week and Edward’s new board. A very confusing situation,” McMaster University business professor Marvin Ryder said in an interview.

Drama Coincides with Deal-Making

The turmoil also comes as Rogers Communications is winding through the government approval process for its $20 billion takeover of Shaw Communications. Rogers had hoped the deal would close in the first half of 2022, and on Sept. 28 the Canada Competition Bureau issued a Request for Information asking for input regarding the effect of the merger on mobile services, residential and business broadband and the supply of programming to television service providers. 

In an email message to Multichannel News, Canada Competition Bureau senior communications advisor Jayme Albert said the agency is aware of the media coverage of the governance issues at Rogers, but that it is concentrating on competitive issues.

“The Bureau’s objective in its review of the proposed Rogers/Shaw merger is to investigate whether it is likely to result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition,” Albert wrote in the email message. “The Bureau is focused on assessing the impacts of the proposed transaction on mobile wireless, wireline internet and broadcasting services, as indicated in the Bureau’s recent public Request for Information. As the Bureau is required by law to conduct its work confidentially, I am unable to comment further.”

Ryder, the professor, said while the government may not be considering the Rogers management turmoil in its approval process, the family imbroglio could have other effects on the Shaw deal.

“This whole Shaw takeover is very much in question,” Ryder said. “I can almost guarantee you that other potential suitors for Shaw, assuming the deal was done, they just disappeared into the woodwork. Now that this is all back on the table, I guarantee you the Shaw family is getting phone calls.”

Ryder said potential suitors could include smaller Canadian telecom companies like Telus and American companies like Verizon and T-Mobile. 

Shaw representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

Ryder added that while Natale isn’t the perfect CEO — Rogers’s performance has been steady, even though the pandemic when its competition was adding hundreds of thousands of subscribers — his real value could be in securing financing for the Shaw deal. Now with the family’s dirty laundry being aired almost daily in the Canadian press, that could give some potential lenders pause.

“Rogers, in the last year, has not had tremendous performance,“ Ryder said, adding that although the company has added about 175,000 new wireless subscribers in Q3, its total revenue and profitability hasn‘t risen much. “Me, as a business school professor, knowing that we've been on a rollercoaster because of COVID, I'm not sure I would be upset with performance like that.”

Ryder added that while other telecom companies performed better as customers stayed home during the pandemic, “I’m not sure that's enough to have triggered all of the drama we've seen over the last week-and-a-half.”

According to reports, in the Oct. 26 suit Edward Rogers said he lost confidence in Natale’s ability to lead Rogers through the Shaw deal and that his mother agreed with him, speaking before the board in late September to back up her son’s assertion. Loretta Rogers, in a statement, said she had been given inaccurate information by her son and board member Alan Horn, and after hearing from independent directors, changed her mind and backed Natale.  

Sparring Siblings

Ed Rogers’s actions also have opened a rift in the family, with his sisters Melinda Rogers-Hixon and Martha Rogers and his mother coming out publicly in support of Natale. 

In an Oct. 24 statement, Roger-Hixon, Martha and Loretta Rogers, along with board members MacDonald, John Clappison, David Peterson, Bonnie Brooks and Ellis Jacob, said they “unequivocally support Joe Natale as CEO and support his management team,” adding that they remain board members and constitute a majority of board members of the company. “No other group of individuals has any authority to purport to act as the Board of Directors of Rogers Communications.”

In a series of tweets, Martha Rogers lambasted her brother, saying his self-reappointment as chairman “should be taken as seriously as if he appointed himself King of England.” She also likened his behind-the-scenes meetings to playdates with the “Old Guard,” adding that her late father, Rogers Communications founder Ted Rogers, would “be so disappointed to see how Ed and his puppet masters are behaving, destroying the company he built.”   

While the battle is headed to court, that might only delay the inevitable: Martha Rogers said in later tweets that the family would “spend every penny defending the company, employees & Ted’s wishes, nothing you can do will deter us. Bring. It. On.”  

Bloomberg opinion columnist and former Goldman Sachs investment banker and M&A lawyer Matt Levine wrote that the Rogers sisters and their mother may have won the battle in removing Ed from the Rogers board, but lost the war.

“Edward Rogers lost at the board but won at the trust, meaning that he will eventually get to kick his sisters and mother off the board, reinstate himself as chairman and fire the CEO, but meanwhile his sisters and mother and the CEO probably have a few months to run the company and try to head him off,” Levine wrote.

Ryder wasn’t convinced the outcome would be that simple, adding that although Ed Rogers may have his own backers on the Trust board, Loretta Rogers’s influence should not be underestimated. The 82-year-old widow is the daughter of late British politician and Governor of Bermuda John Roland Robinson, who gave Loretta $450,000 shortly after she married Ted in 1963 to help finance his son-in-law's business endeavors. 

“Part of Ted Rogers’s success was his wife,” Ryder said. He said Loretta Rogers’s money was what helped her husband Ted form the company in the first place. “It’s really her money that is the backbone of Rogers.”

It appears that the ongoing soap opera is far from over. Just how it ultimately plays out will depend on how long Ed Rogers can hold on to his board support and how long the companies are willing to let this Canadian version of Festivus (the airing of the grievances) continue.

AT&T said it has named former Ford Foundation president Luis Ubiñas to its board of directors, bringing the total number of members on the telecom giant’s board to 13.

“Luis is an accomplished executive and a terrific addition to our board,” AT&T chairman Bill Kennard said in a press release. “His leadership experience and expertise across broadband and wireless, government and the nonprofit sector align with our priorities to serve customers, investors and our communities.”

Ubiñas is currently lead director of video game giant Electronic Arts, serves on the board of publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) Tanger and is an adviser to several private and pre-IPO companies. 

Between 2008 and 2013 Ubiñas served as president of the Ford Foundation, the second largest foundation in the U.S. Prior to that he served 18 years with McKinsey & Co., including a stint as a senior partner and leader of the company's West Coast media practice. 

Ubiñas’ appointment comes a few days after AT&T’s Warner Media said it sold its mobile game unit Playdemic, Ltd. creator of Golf Clash, to EA for $1.4 billion in cash.  Separately, AT&T is in the process of merging WarnerMedia with Discovery Inc.  

WWE said that it has elected Erika Nardini, CEO of Barstool Sports, to its board of directors.

“Erika is a seasoned executive with a tremendous track record of building businesses, developing experiences, and engaging different audiences across the media ecosystem,” said Vince McMahon, WWE chairman & CEO. “Her entrepreneurial spirit, business acumen and understanding of today’s consumers will serve as a perfect addition to our board of directors.”

Nardini became Barstool Sports’ first CEO in 2016. During her tenure, the company has launched more than 35 brands in sports, entertainment, female lifestyle and sports betting.

Earlier this year Nardini launched a strategic partnership with casino operator Penn National Gaming. In September, they launched the Barstool Sportsbook.

Before joining Barstool, Nardina held posts at Microsoft, AOL, Demand Media and Yahoo!. She’s on the advisory boards of Premiere Lacrosse League and Food52.

ATLANTA - Liberty Global VP of technology Bill Warga and Charter Communications Exec VP of field operations Tom Adams will return to their roles as chair and vice chair of the SCTE board for the coming 2018-19 campaign, the org announced today.

Related: SCTE Touts 10-Year Plan for Cable-Tec Expo

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and its sibling org, the International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE) also announced that Meena Soleiman, VP of finance, business operations and technology for Comcast, will serve as treasurer; and Steve Williams, director of DOCSIS for Charter, will be secretary.

“The guidance of our boards has been essential in making SCTE•ISBE one of cable’s most valuable and respected association resources,” said Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of SCTE•ISBE, in a statement. “I look forward to working with Bill, Tom and the rest of the board in our 50th anniversary year as we continue to leverage our training, our standards and our partnerships with NCTA and CableLabs to deliver value to the bottom-line for our industry.”

Multiscreen video software specialist SeaChange International said it has made changes to its board of directors, including the naming of a new chairman and the appointment of two members, “in response to shareholder feedback.”

William Markey, the company said, has been named chairman of the board, and previous chairman, Steven Craddock, “has decided to retire from the Board.”

Markey, formerly a director of the SeaChange board, is also president of Relevant C Business Group (RCBG), a private consulting firm he founded in 2002, and is a co-founder of Ucentric Systems, a software company acquired by Motorola in 2005.

Joining the SeaChange board are Mark Bonney and Andy Sriubas.

SeaChange said Bonney is “in independent director with substantial experience in turn-around and merger and acquisition situations,” and that his appointment follows an agreement with one of SeaChange’s largest shareholders, VIEX Capital Advisors.

Sriubas, who started his career with Citibank, has been an advisor to the SeaChange board since May 2016, and has chaired the company’s Advisory Board that works with the management team on strategic and technology matters, SeaChange said.

Bonney’s appointment will be presented to shareholders for a vote at the company's 2018 annual meeting, and Sriubas' appointment will be presented for a vote at the company's annual meeting in 2019.

The board-level changes come a few weeks after a SeaChange investor, Roumell Asset Management, scolded the board for the SeaChange’s “poor operating results and weakened balance sheet” and urged the board to pursue a sale of the company. SeaChange, now under new CEO Ed Terino, is in the middle of a restructuring that aims to return the company to profitability. 

RELATED: Investor Pushes SeaChange to Sell

“We are very pleased to have strengthened our board with the addition of Mark and Andy, both of whom bring skillsets that we believe will be important to enabling SeaChange to continue its transformation and growth within the evolving media marketplace,” Markey said in a statement. “Being responsive to our shareholders is important, and I appreciate that we have developed a constructive relationship with Eric Singer at VIEX as part of this effort…At the same time, we are grateful to Steve [Craddock] for his five-years of service on the board of SeaChange, and his many contributions in assisting in the company’s progress.”

"I believe the actions the SeaChange board has taken around reconstitution will ensure the best governance framework to support the company's progress in achieving higher value for all shareholders," Singer added. 

Charter Communications said it has named former American Express executive Kim Crawford Goodman to its board of directors, rounding out the expanded board the company announced when it completed its purchase of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in May. Crawford Goodman also will serve on the board’s audit committee.

“Kim is a proven leader and brings with her a wealth of experience and financial expertise that will be of tremendous value to the Charter Board,” said Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said in a statement. “With our thirteen-member board now in place and integration of the three companies well underway, Charter remains focused on delivering superior products at highly competitive prices, combined with outstanding service, driving operating and financial momentum and shareholder value.”

Crawford Goodman most recently served as president of Amex’s Global Business Travel and President of Merchant Services Americas.  Prior to joining American Express in 2007, she held senior executive positions at Dell Inc. including vice president of Software and Peripherals, vice president of Public Marketing and Transactional Sales, and vice president and general manager of Dell Networking.   Crawford Goodman began her career at Bain and Company where she served as Partner, Manager and a Consultant.

With the announcement, Crawford Goodman becomes the 13th member of Charter’s Board of Directors.   In May, Charter announced that Millicom CEO Mauricio Ramos was appointed to the Board. At that time Charter also announced that Advance/Newhouse had designated Steve Miron and Michael Newhouse; and that Liberty Broadband had designated John Malone, Greg Maffei and Balan Nair to serve on Charter’s Board. Rutledge was named Chairman and Eric Zinterhofer was appointed lead independent director.  It was also announced that Lance Conn, Craig Jacobson, Jay Markley and David Merritt would continue to serve on the Board.

It hasn’t been a good week to be Philippe Dauman.

The Viacom executive chairman and CEO is a regular target of irate shareholders who blame him for the content company’s precipitous fall over the past few years. Now, he’s even taking shots from his onetime friend and mentor, and Viacom’s largest shareholder, Sumner Redstone.

Redstone’s moves to oust Dauman and longtime Viacom board member George Abrams from the trust that will manage Redstone’s controlling stake in Viacom after his death or incapacitation has fueled mounting speculation that Dauman is being forced out.

While Dauman works hard to repair his reputation, signs point to a showdown with Redstone’s daughter and Viacom nonexecutive vice chair of the board Shari Redstone, who has been gaining influence in the trust. Lawsuits have traded back and forth: Dauman to block Redstone’s moves, Shari Redstone to have her father’s wishes upheld.

As the palace intrigue roils on, it might be time to take a closer look at Dauman’s performance by comparing his often-criticized pay package with the rise or fall of Viacom’s market capitalization over the past five years.

Related:Viacom Board Prepared to Fight

There has been much talk of Viacom’s mismanagement and how executives were more interested in cashing massive compensation checks while ignoring trends in the TV business. That is all a matter of perception, though: Few current pay TV executives could have anticipated the rise of OTT players and skinny bundles five years ago, and most didn’t.

At the same time, whether or not its youth-oriented channels make it a canary in the coal mine for the rest of the TV business, one unmistakable fact is that under Dauman and his top lieutenant, chief operating officer Tom Dooley, Viacom has faltered in the past few years.

A quick look at the stock price is evidence of that. Viacom shares are down about 25% since May 2011, shedding about $19 billion in market cap. At the same time, Dauman has received nearly $200 million in total compensation over that span and Dooley received $154 million in salary, stock-and-option awards and incentive compensation.

Since 2014, when Viacom stock was trading in the $80 range, the falloff is more dramatic. Since March 10, 2014, when Viacom shares closed at $88.90 each, the stock is down more than 50% to $39.95 on May 24, subtracting about $20 billion in market cap. Dauman and Dooley reaped a combined $145.8 million in total compensation over that period.

Dauman and Dooley aren’t the only media executives who have been criticized over their pay packages — and they aren’t even the highest paid. That distinction belongs to Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav, who has received $324.1 million in total compensation in the past five years, skewed mostly because of one-time awards in 2014 that inflated his total pay to $156 million that year. Viacom’s sister company CBS was second, with chairman and CEO Les Moonves receiving $313 million in total compensation in the past five years.

But while Disney chairman and CEO Robert Iger received $199 million in total compensation between 2011 and 2015, for instance, Disney’s market cap soared 144.6% from $41.1 billion to $100.5 billion. CBS is up 105.6% to $54.2 billion from $26.4 billion in 2011; 21st Century Fox is up 69.6% to $28.9 billion from $17.1 billion in 2011; and Discovery is up 23% to $26.8 billion from $21.8 billion in 2011. Viacom’s market cap has fallen from about $35 billion in 2011 to $16.7 billion as of May 25.

Whatever the outcome, some analysts believe Dauman’s days are numbered. In a research note last week, Telsey Advisory Group media analyst Tom Eagan charted out several scenarios that ultimately end with Dauman’s ouster.

In a piece titled “Jersey Shore Has Nothing on This,” Eagan noted board changes at Viacom and National Amusements (the vehicle that holds Redstone’s Viacom stock). “We expect that Sumner and Shari Redstone will attempt to make changes in Viacom executive management, chiefly replacing CEO and chairman Phillippe Dauman,” Eagan wrote. “Although Mr. Dauman has the support of the Viacom board, we expect changes in that board.”

Comcast said Wednesday that it has named The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia CEO Madeline Bell to its board of directors effective Feb. 22.

Bell was tapped to lead the hospital in July – she had been chief operating officer since 2010. She also was named to the board’s audit committee. She has been deemed an independent director, in accordance with NASDAQ rules and with her appointment, Comcast’s board is 42% diverse.

With Bell’s appointment, Comcast expands its board to 12 members. She is the second woman named to the board which includes Kenneth Bacon, Sheldon Bonovitz, Ed Breen, Joe Collins, J. Michael Cook, Gerald Hassell, Jeffrey Honickman, Eduardo Mestre, Brian Roberts, Johnathan Rodgers and Dr. Judith Rodin.