Veteran cable executive Alexander “Sandy” Brown has been named chief operating officer for Rural Media Group.

Brown had been president and CEO of One World Sports (now Eleven Sports). Before that he was president of sports for Univision and managing director for ESPN Asia.

AS COO and group president of RMG, Brown will lead the company's operating businesses, focusing on RFD-TV, The Cowboy Channel and Rural Radio on Sirius XM.

"Sandy Brown is a tremendous addition to our senior management team," said Patrick Gottsch, founder and president of Rural Media Group. "His vast experience in national advertising sales and existing relationships with key distributors will certainly add value to both RFD-TV and our new venture, The Cowboy Channel.

"RMG's operations in Nashville will also benefit daily with Sandy's leadership, as will our efforts to now expand all our interests digitally on an international basis,” Gottsch added. "I see Sandy as contributing heavily to helping our networks finally reach their full potential."

Brown will report to Gottsch.

"Rural Media Group is the unequivocal leader in covering the issues that affect our farming and ranching community, for no other network connects with this critical segment of our country in the manner that RMG does," Brown said. “I am thrilled to be joining the group at a time when rural America’s interests have never been more important.”

The Federal Communications Commission chairmanship is not usually among the first posts filled in a new administration. It can sometimes take months after the inauguration for a new chair to be installed, with a sitting commissioner — in this case either of two Republicans, Ajit Pai or Michael O’Rielly — serving as interim chairman in the, well, interim.

But a lot of names and scenarios have been bubbling up for the new chairman of the agency, particularly since it is hard to predict if the Trump administration will follow form or blaze new paths to various nominations.

Here is the current laundry list (with background input from various sources), with the caveat that someone could come out of left field to be named the FCC’s starting pitcher, as it were:

Pai: Senior sitting Republican. The last two Republican chairs — Kevin Martin and Michael Powell — were plucked from the ranks of sitting commissioners, though Powell had big name recognition as the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Martin had been a lawyer in Florida representing President George W. Bush in the 2000 recount court battle. Still, Pai has Senate connections: He once worked with Attorney General nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).

O’Rielly: A dark horse, but multiple sources said his name is in the mix, given his Senate connections as a former Hill staffer.

Jeff Eisenach/Mark Jamison/Roslyn Layton: They are the deregulatory think tankers leading the FCC transition team. Wheeler was an Obama technology and FCC transition team leader and got the big chair, as was former Republican FCC chairman Mark Fowler. Fowler confirmed for the Wire that he “was in charge of supervising the transition teams of all major regulatory agencies, including the FCC” back in the Reagan years, so there is precedent for the pickers becoming the picked.

David Fellows: A telecommunications industry vet spanning engineering and operations, he’s the co-founder and chief technology officer of Layer3 TV, the Denver-based, self-described “next-generation cable operator,” and is also serving as chief scientist of the cable-focused Energy 2020 initiative. Fellows has deep experience in various facets of the telecom and tech sectors, including past key roles at MSOs (Comcast and AT&T Broadband), major suppliers (Scientific Atlanta, now part of Cisco Systems), telecom (GTE) and as a venture capitalist (Genovation Capital and Pilot House Ventures).

Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.): He is a member of the House Communications Subcommittee, though he does not have a high profile there. Cramer was also an early Trump supporter, which appears to count a lot with the President-elect.

Brandt Hershman: An Indiana state senator with telecom deregulation chops and a degree from Harvard, he is said to be a suggestion from VP-elect and former Indiana congressman and governor Mike Pence, who is leading the transition. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the next chairman had connections with Indiana,” said one FCC transition watcher.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn: The Tennessee Republican is another early, and vocal, Trump supporter who is a member of the transition team executive committee, though she may be looking for a bigger post. She is vice chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and has been very active on communications issues.

Ann Coulter: OK, that’s a long, long shot. But the conservative commentator was another early (and late) Trump supporter and last summer all but campaigned for the FCC post, telling Business Insider she would take aim at big media companies she said had “just gotten very powerful and very unfair,” something Trump echoed in criticisms of the proposed AT&T-Time Warner and approved Comcast-NBCUniversal deals and his attacks on media news outlets in general.

###

One World Sports, Facing Reported Woes, Looks to ‘Bright Future’

One World Sports, the niche sports network that has been the go-to channel for distributors locked into, or looking for alternatives to, onerous carriage contracts, is having some money problems of its own, according to sources last week.

Sports news website Awful Announcing first reported the channel had furloughed workers in an effort to cut costs, and in fact had considered bankruptcy and failed to pay employees and vendors for months. Sources said last week the network — with access to 43 million homes but mostly carried on lightly penetrated sports tiers — had lined up an investor that backed out at the last minute, prompting the need to take quick action.

One World CEO Sandy Brown said some of the reported signs of financial distress weren’t accurate but didn’t give specifics. He said talks were ongoing with a potential investor and he was optimistic a deal would be reached. “We’re very excited about where the network is headed,” Brown told The Wire. “We’ve got a very bright future and we’ve just got to get through this.”

The channel is owned by One Media Corp., a Dallas investment firm headed by Seamus O’Brien. He’s also the owner of the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League, and Cosmos games air on One World Sports. That team and the league itself are in financial difficulties, according to reports. OWS also airs international hockey, basketball and golf matches, along with table tennis and badminton competitions. It’s landed several deals with distributors that were otherwise locking horns with pricier networks.

— Mike Farrell

A year after initiating a rebrand and moving into a new state-of-the-art production facility in Stamford, Conn., One World Sports is celebrating with the addition of Charter to its growing distribution roster.

As part of a multiyear, multiplatform agreement, the global sports network has been rolled out on the MSO’s international package in Los Angeles, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington, Nevada and Oregon, with the balance of Charter systems expected to come on board by year-end.

The Charter debut follows the April launch of One World Sports on Verizon FiOS’ TV Extreme and TV Ultimate packages and supplements the carriage pacts it has with Cablevision’s Optimum TV, Dish Network, Google Fiber, Hawaiian Telcom and Mediacom Communications.

The Charter deal will push One World’s base before some 30 million subscribers. That’s 40% expansion from 18 million homes a year ago, and a level that executives believe underlines the value distributors are placing on its content spanning various soccer, cricket, baseball and hockey properties and one that is opening doors with advertisers.

“Charter has a reputation as a disciplined operator and this is further evidence that distributors like our programming strategy, said executive vice president of distribution Randy Brown, the industry veteran who joined CEO Alexander “Sandy” Brown’s (no relation) team in January. “We believe the deal has a tailwind that will give us momentum in concluding deals with other distributors.”

“Charter customers are passionate about sports. As interest in international sports continues to gain popularity, we’re pleased that One World Sports brings Charter fans world-class sporting events like soccer, cricket and even American sports played outside our country,” said Charter senior vice president of programming Allan Singer. “We offer a wide variety of sports to our viewers and One World Sport is a great addition.”

Subscribers to Charter and other affiliates have TV and multiplatform access to some 3,000 live hours on One World, whose properties include club channel programming from top European soccer powers Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Chelsea, and A.C. Milan; the New York Cosmos from the North American Soccer League; the Asian Football Confederation Champions League; the J.League of Japan; the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball; the Chinese Basketball Association; and England’s national cricket team.

As part of additional 500 hours of new programming, One World recently inked a three-season deal with the fledgling Champions Hockey League comprising 44 clubs from 12 European nations. Brown called the circuit, which drops the puck on its inaugural campaign this month, “the UEFA Champions League of hockey,”  noting that sport’s profile has been raised by the Olympics and the cross-pollination of players who have skated for both NHL and for European sides. Some 100 Champions Hockey Leagues participants have played in the NHL, according to Brown.

One World is also negotiating toward an expanded renewal pact with Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, after showcasing some of the circuit’s regular-season and playoff and championship round action last spring.

As for the world’s game, Brown believes soccer is ready to soar with the recent competition in Brazil and NBC Sports Group’s coverage of the U.K.’s Barclays Premier League stoking futbol fever.

“If you look at semifinals of the World Cup, there were a lot of players on the teams we cover,” he said. “We show the matches on delay, as well as the press conferences and the behind-the- scenes things going around the clubs. Fans of Chelsea, Arsenal and Bayern can’t get enough."

Brown said the globalization of sports and its appeal to young adults underlines the continuing transformation of the network from one initially aimed at Asian expats -- “a focus that was “too limited to gain carriage” -- to a broader base of properties.

To that end, One World cites research from Frank N. Magid Associates, as well as viewing data that adults 18 to 34 and more broadly the 18-to-49 set have a growing recognition and taste for international competition. “The Census tells you the planet is becoming more multicultural,” said Sandy Brown. “Young people are well-traveled and are interested in sports from around the world.”

He said One World will continue to take “a judicious approach” to adding content, but is looking  to expand its presence by securing more properties not only in Europe and Asia, but in Mexico and Latin America.

It is also opening doors closer to home -- on Madison Avenue. Gary Herman, who joined from Tennis Channel in March as executive vice president, said One World has inked Geico as a “founding partner” and the advertising game plan calls to build that group to 10 to 12.

“We’re offering live sports in an environment with fewer pods and sponsors,” Herman said, not to mention low costs. He said that for less than half the cost of one spot in a major sporting event, advertisers could secure 4,000 units on One World.

Western Union and Nutrisystems recently ran schedules on the network via scatter buys that were also used to make ensure that the network’s back-end functioned properly, according to Herman, who expressed confidence that One World “would add five to seven founding partners over the next year.” 

The network is also focused on adding more distribution. As was the case with FiOS, the network wants to move from ethnic package positioning to sports tiers and beyond. Randy Brown said its pricing with Charter is structured to incentivize broader distribution, and that it inked the deal with the Stamford, Conn.-headquartered MSO in part as a means to “set the table for others to see us. We’re a sports network.” 

The network was well-received by small operators at last month’s Independent Show in Kansas City. “There’s a kinship with that group and their independent heritage, and our appeal as a best in class, low cost alternative to other more established players in the sports arena,” said Randy Brown.

“The operators see there is a credibility to the way we’re going about our business without leverage and bundling,” said Sandy Brown. “They like the way we’re trying to grow organically.”