Latman will continue to serve as executive VP, development and research, for Investigation Discovery and American Heroes Channel, and as general manager of Destination America.

Travel Channel didn’t have a general manager. The executives who had been in charge of programming for the network—Allison Page and Courtney White--were promoted to senior posts at HGTV and Food Network.

Related: Discovery Gives New Duties to Execs Schleiff, Page, White

Those networks, also from the SNI acquisition, are overseen by former Scripps executive Kathleen Finch, now Discovery’s Chief Lifestyle Brands Officer.

Earlier this month, Discovery Group president Henry Schlieff was put in charge of Travel Channel. Schlieff, who reports to Finch, also runs ID, American Heroes and Destination America.

“Jane is an unrivaled force in the television industry whose visionary creativity, natural leadership skills and passionate belief in collaboration make her one of the most, deservedly, respected executives in the industry,” said Schleiff. “I’m continually impressed by her ability to cultivate content that converts viewers into passionate fans – and, move a brand forward – a trait that will undoubtedly make her a successful steward at Travel Channel.”

Latman gets credit for creating programming that has powered ID from being the No. 50 network a decade ago to No. 1 today among women 25 to 54.

She joined Discovery in 2003.

Discovery Communications, cleared to acquire Scripps Networks Interactive, on Thursday (March 1) announced new management for the combined company.

Among the top Scripps execs taking prominent roles are Jon Steinlauf, who will be chief U.S. advertising sales officer. Ben Price, currently president of U.S. ad sales for Discovery, will report to Steinlauf, along with Leigh Anne Brodsky, currently executive VP of Discovery Global Enterprises.

Scripps’s programming chief, Kathleen Finch, will become chief lifestyle brand officer for the combined company with oversight of HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, Travel Channel, DIY Network, Cooking Channel, Discovery Life, American Heroes Channel, Destination America, Great American Country and Lifestyle Digital Studios in the U.S.

Related: Discovery to Shut Down Maryland HQ, Move to New York

Henry Schleiff will continue as group president for ID, Destination America and American Heroes Channel. Howard Lee, currently executive VP, development & production for TLC and general manager of Discovery Life, will be the new president and GM for TLC and Discovery Life, effective immediately. Both Schleiff and Lee will report to Finch upon closing of the transaction.

Nancy Daniels, currently president of TLC, will assume the new role of Chief Brand Officer, Discovery & Factual, effective immediately. Daniels will lead all aspects of the Discovery Channel and Science Channel brands. Rich Ross, currently group president of Discovery Channel and Science Channel, will be leaving the company.

“Today’s announcement is another major milestone in combining these two fantastic companies into a new kind of media company with the most trusted portfolio of real life entertainment brands in the world,” said David Zaslav, president and CEO, Discovery Communications. “Upon closing, each division will have a best-in-class leader focused on quickly integrating the combined teams to create new ways for advertisers and distributors to reach highly targeted audiences at scale; capturing operating efficiencies across both companies; and driving innovation to continue telling great stories and nourishing our passionate, loyal superfans around the world across every consumer screen, service and platform.”

Related | broadcastingcable.com: Scripps Networks Interactive Has Higher 4th Quarter Profit

Other executives who will be reporting to Zaslav include:

Gunnar Wiedenfels, currently Discovery’s CFO, who will be CFO for the combined company.

Jean-Briac Perrette, currently president and CEO of Discovery Networks International, will continue in that role for the combined company.

Bruce Campbell, currently chief development, distribution and legal officer for Discovery, will continue in that role. Leading the combined company’s linear, non-linear and mobile distribution efforts in the U.S. & Canada will be Eric Phillips, president, affiliate distribution, reporting to Campbell. Discovery’s General Counsel, Savalle Sims, will retain that role for the combined company, also reporting to Campbell.

Adria Alpert Romm, currently serving as Chief Human Resources and Global Diversity Officer for Discovery, will continue in that role for the combined company.

Susanna Dinnage, currently serving as Global President of the Animal Planet network in the U.S. and Animal Planet brand worldwide, will continue in that role.

Erik Logan, currently serving as president of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, will continue in that role and report to the OWN Venture board of directors.

Karen Leever, currently serving as executive VP and GM, Digital Media U.S., and Mike Lang, currently serving as president, Discovery Networks International Digital & CEO TEN/MotorTrend, will continue in those roles for the new company reporting to Zaslav.

Current Scripps Networks executives not assuming roles in the company going forward will participate in the integration process following the deal's close to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities, Discovery said.

Travel Channel premieres The Zimmern List, a series hosted by food personality Andrew Zimmern, March 13.

The Zimmern List shows Zimmern, also host of Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern and Andrew Zimmern’s Driven by Food, sharing his recommendations on food and foodie destinations.

Travel Chanel is on board for 18 half-hour episodes.

“Zimmern literally serves as the viewers guide to each town he visits," Travel Channel said. "While immersed in the unique food culture, he reveals some of his favorite eating experiences. Throw out the guidebooks because Zimmern knows where to picnic with a sandwich from his favorite Italian deli in Boston and where to find the best taco truck for casual late-night dining in Las Vegas.”

In the premiere episode, Zimmern spotlights Los Angeles. A second episode airs on premiere night, with Austin, Texas, getting its close-up.

“This is the most personal show I’ve ever made, including taking the audience to the restaurant in San Francisco I swore to never reveal for fear of it becoming too popular,” said Zimmern. “Hidden gems, cult classics, they’re all there.”

Travel Channel is owned by Scripps Networks Interactive.

Former Scripps Networks communications chief Cindy McConkey Cox died Thursday after a long illness.

McConkey Cox joined Scripps Networks in 2001 as senior vice president of Corporate Communications after 15 years at Knoxville, Tenn.-based Ackermann Public Relations & Marketing. She took an early retirement from Scripps in 2014, about a year after she was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare form of liver cancer, according to a 2016 report in the Knoville News Sentinel. She is survived by her husband, two daughters and two grandchildren.

“In her nearly 15 years with us at Scripps Networks, Cindy was a standout leader and friend," Scripps Networks chairman and CEO Ken Lowe said in a statement. "She had a reputation for speaking her mind with conviction, having a tireless work ethic, and taking care of business. But as a respected colleague, she was so much more. Cindy was generous with her time and her friendship, serving as a mentor to many. She endeared herself not only to those within our company and our community, but throughout the entire cable television industry.

"We were devastated as we stood by her side when she told us of her cancer diagnosis and have anxiously followed along with her journey since then," Lowe continued. "And we were not surprised to see her tackle her disease with hope, determination and grace, in typical Cindy fashion. We are heartbroken to say goodbye to Cindy but everyone whose path crossed with hers at Scripps Networks Interactive is truly grateful to have known her.”

Before joining the cable industry, McConkey Cox was a ground-breaking journalist covering national sports for USA Today in the 1980s.

She joined Random Acts of Flowers, a Knoxville-based non-profit company whose volunteers convert donated flowers into bouquets and deliver them to people in health care facilities across the country, as chief operations officer and chief marketing officer in 2016.     

“I cannot begin to express how devastated we are as a team,” Random Acts of Flowers founder and CEO Larsen Jay said on the company’s website. “Cindy was a guiding light in our organization since her first day in April 2016. Within our organization she was known as a brilliant communicator, a strategic thinker, and someone who always put others above herself. Thoughtful, warm, and ‘one tough cookie’ is how her closest friends describe Cindy.

“Our love for Cindy is hard to put into words,” Jay continued. “Her loss is profound. We will miss her deeply but we are also grateful our team could share so many meaningful personal and professional milestones with this wonderful woman.”

With the expected closing of its $14.6 billion purchase of Scripps Networks Interactive just a few months away, Discovery Communications is planning to shut down its Silver Spring, Md., headquarters over the next two years and move its base of operations to New York.

In a memo to employees Tuesday, issued prior to an 11 a.m. Town Hall meeting for workers at the headquarters site, Discovery CEO David Zaslav said the plan was to shut down the Silver Spring location and sell it by 2019.

“This was one of the toughest calls we have made in our company’s history, and we do not take it lightly,” Zaslav said in the memo. “I felt strongly about sharing the news with all of you as quickly as possible once the decision was finalized. Maryland is where the magic of Discovery first began. It also is where many of you, and your loved ones, call home. Where so many wonderful ideas, stories and innovations were first imagined. After much discussion, analysis and debate, however, we believe this move is the right choice, at the right time, for the long-term success of our company.”

Discovery also plans to make Scripps’ current Knoxville, Tenn., headquarters a National Operations headquarters for the entire company and to transform Discovery’s Sterling, Va., facility ito a Technology Hub for the company. Scripps built a 150,000 square-foot operations facility in Knoxville in 2010.

Knoxville is where Scripps first launched HGTV and Food Network in 1994.

Discovery also plans to maintain a small Network Hub in Maryland to house select networks and roles that support them.

But at the center of Discovery’s new blueprint is New York. In the employee memo, Zaslav said the plan will be to consolidate Discovery and Scripps team members currently scattered between four locations in the city into a new Global Headquarters, for which planning is underway. Discovery hopes to move into the new building in the second half of 2019.

The moves come about three months after Discovery earmarked $10 million for a renovation of the Silver Spring HQ, relocating workers from surrounding areas and consolidating buildings. While some saw that September investment as proof that Discovery intended to keep its base in the area even after the Scripps deal closed, the company stressed that no final decisions had been made. On Tuesday, that final decision was made.

Discovery, which opened its Silver Spring headquarters in 2003, has about 1,300 employees in Maryland.

The Scripps deal is expected to close in the first quarter of this year.

Following is Zaslav’s memo in its entirety: 

Today I am announcing plans for a new Discovery global real estate strategy and footprint.

Chief among these changes, we have made the decision to move our global headquarters to New York City. We have therefore made the difficult decision to reduce our footprint in Maryland over time, with the ultimate closure and sale of our One Discovery Place headquarters building in Silver Spring, expected in 2019.

This was one of the toughest calls we have made in our company’s history, and we do not take it lightly. I felt strongly about sharing the news with all of you as quickly as possible once the decision was finalized. 

"Maryland is where the magic of Discovery first began.  It also is where many of you, and your loved ones, call home. Where so many wonderful ideas, stories and innovations were first imagined. 

"After much discussion, analysis and debate, however, we believe this move is the right choice, at the right time, for the long-term success of our company.  I will use the rest of this note to explain why, and ask you to please join me for a Town Hall at 1DP at 11AM ET today and live on workplace to discuss these changes in greater detail.

Responding to the Changing Landscape
You have heard me talk extensively about how dramatically the media industry is changing.  An industry that is more global, more consumer-focused and more multi-platform. We are constantly challenged by changing viewer tastes, behaviors and new entrants in the marketplace offering competing products. 

To compete, survive and grow, Discovery must continue to change as well.

For the past several years, we have started the journey to transition from a linear TV company with great cable distribution to a leading IP media company with world-class programming across all screens and services. Our investment in original content created new brands and fueled our expansion into sports, kids, short-form and direct-to-consumer products. The acquisitions of SBS, Eurosport and the rights to the Olympic Games in Europe expanded Discovery beyond our original nonfiction roots.  

The most recent milestone on our journey is Scripps. The pending acquisition has allowed us to undertake an in-depth analysis of where we work and how we work, and the chance to create the most efficient locations for our best-in-class creative, technology, production and operating functions to thrive now, and into the future. 

Beyond the headquarters move to New York and eventual closure of 1DP, we also plan, contingent on the deal closing, to create a National Operations Headquarters at Scripps’ current Knoxville, Tennessee campus and a Technology Hub at our Sterling facility in Northern Virginia.  We also plan to maintain a small Network Hub in Maryland to house select networks and roles that support them.

New York Global Headquarters
At the center of our new blueprint is New York. New York always has been home to the global media industry…our ad partners on Madison Avenue, investors and analysts on Wall Street, many of our creative and production community and, increasingly, our new short- and mid-form content partners, are based in New York. 

The plan would be to bring together the strength of all current Discovery and Scripps team members, currently spread across four different facilities in NY in a new Global Headquarters.  Planning for the space and location in New York is underway and we hope to move into a new building there in the second half of 2019. 

National Operations Headquarters in Knoxville
From an operating and financial perspective, it became clear that, pending closure of the Scripps transaction, we could not operate three large facilities in the U.S.  Since the announcement of the deal, we have evaluated the strengths, capabilities and advantages of the Knoxville, Tennessee campus, which houses the major Scripps brands and creative digital teams along with corporate functions. 

Featuring a compelling environment and infrastructure, Knoxville is a self-contained campus with many amenities and benefits for a National Operations Headquarters, including low cost of living, built-in facilities, and operational capabilities.

Northern Virginia Technology Hub
Discovery’s state-of-the-art media distribution facility in Sterling, Virginia, where we have originated over 80 feeds nearly flawlessly the last 13 years, will become a global technology center. 

The Northern Virginia Technology Hub, as it will be called, has been built as a model for the future. Our technology infrastructure is a competitive advantage and the team has done a terrific job investing for growth. It features modern digital technology, recently upgraded to take full advantage of flexible computing in the cloud, live playout capabilities, increased nonlinear publishing and much more. 

Beyond our global technology operation in Northern Virginia, we also plan to have a technology footprint in Knoxville and maintain several other international locations to service our global operations.

Global Creative Hubs & Regional Offices
Finally, we will continue bolstering our fantastic creative hubs in Los Angeles, New York, London, Miami, Warsaw and Milan, as well as in the Nordics, Brazil and Argentina, among others.  Over the past several years, we have benefited greatly from our expanded presence in these major global markets, offering closer proximity to robust local production communities and providing us more options for global content sourcing. 

To continue to support and draw from the community in Maryland, and to house select network and support functions, we will create a Maryland Network Hub. The Maryland location also will house other select functions, such as government relations, that are logically based in the Metropolitan DC area, as well as our Discovery Education division.

Since we wanted to tell you all as quickly as possible about these important decisions, we have not yet embarked on all the planning to determine which functions will be moved to which location.  For example, there is also duplication of facilities in other cities around the world, and we will continue the evaluation process following the closing of the Scripps acquisition regarding the most efficient and effective plan for housing our combined company employee base.

What This Means for You
We recognize this is challenging news, and that sharing it early would create some uncertainty, but we felt the benefit of more time, planning and transparency was important to help everyone impacted evaluate your own personal considerations.

After we close and begin the integration of Scripps, we will have a much clearer sense of timing and will regularly update you on any decisions that are made, and how and when your department will be impacted.

Our promise is to provide all the resources and support possible, and answer your questions as quickly as we can.

To that end, we will launch a host of resources and tools to help all employees navigate through this changing time. We will share more information about these resources in today’s Town Hall and over the upcoming weeks and months.

As always, thank you for your commitment and hard work for this great company.

David

Viacom has withdrawn its interest in acquiring Scripps Networks Interactive, sources said.

The company had reportedly given Scripps Networks an all-cash offer worth $10.6 billion earlier this week.

Discovery Communications, which started the merger talks that seem to have put SNI in play, is still talking with the company.

Related: Scripps, Discovery Stocks Soar on Deal Speculation

For a cable programmer like Discovery or Viacom, acquiring SNI -- with its strong brands led by HGTV and Food Networks -- would create greater scale at a time when distributors are consolidating and consumers are seeking lower cost skinnier bundles of channels.

But analysts say a combination of Discovery and Scripps would not address the industry’s main problems of declining ratings, slow ad revenue growth and subscribers shifting from pay TV to digital video. 

News of Viacom’s withdrawal from the bidding for Scripps was earlier reported by Variety.

Lynn Sadofsky, vice president of production and development at National Geographic, has joined Scripps Networks Interactive in a similar post.

At Scripps Sadofsky will be vice president of programming and development for Food Network, Cooking Channel and Travel Channel, reporting to SVP Courtney White. She will be based in New York.

Her past programming credits include Wicked Tuna, Brain Games, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Food Detectives and Saturday Night Live.

“As a respected and skilled leader in the industry, Lynn’s impressive career has spanned both the production and network side of the business,” White said of the new hire. “I had the privilege of working alongside Lynn a few years ago and I was invigorated every day by her dedicated work ethic, attention to creative detail, strong management of talent and team, and her collaborative nature.”

Viacom is offering to buy Scripps Networks Interactive for $10.6 billion in an all-cash deal, according to a report from Reuters.

Discovery Communications is also reportedly bidding for SNI, which runs cable networks including HGTV, Food Network and Travel Channel.

Viacom, which is trying to recover from a loss of viewers and ad revenue at its cable networks, including MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, already has $12.17 billion in debt, which means a bid would stretch its ability to raise money.

The Reuters report, pegged to sources familiar with the matter, said Discovery was not expected to make an all-cash bid.

None of the companies involved commented.

Discovery Communications is in talks to combine with Scripps Networks Interactive, according to a report in theWall Street Journal.

Terms of the potential deal couldn’t be learned by the paper, which added that another bidder for Scripps could emerge.

The report come amid difficult times in the cable TV business as more consumers drop their pay TV subscriptions and watch digital video instead.

Discovery and Scripps both own mainly non-fiction cable channels and do not have ties to the broadcast networks or sports franchises that would make them must-haves as programming bundles get skinnier.

Go to broadcastingcable.com for the full story.

Fox News Channel has named Amy Listerman as chief financial offier and executive vice president of finance and accounting, effective May 1.

Listerman replaces Mark Krantz, who retired in August and is reportedly cooperating, in exchange for immunity, with investigators looking into whether payments the network made in sexual harassment cases against it were accounted for properly.

FNC is also under fire because of harassment complaints against Bill O’Reilly, who hosts the network’s highest-rated primetime hour. Advertisers have been pulling their ads from the show, raising question about the future of that program.

Related > Report: Fox Settled O’Reilly Sexual Harassment Claim Last Summer

Before joining Fox News, Listerman had been with Scripps Networks Interactive, where she had been senior vice president and CFO of advertising sales and head of advertising sales data strategy.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Cable stocks had a strong run in 2016 — distributor shares increased almost 40% for the year — and with a more business-friendly presidential administration set to take hold later this month, the sector has ample runway ahead, according to several analysts.

That kind of optimism wasn’t quite so evident before the Nov. 8 election, when analysts had expected more scrutiny of media companies and pressure to keep pricing low and access high under another Democratic administration. But after Republican candidate Donald Trump’s surprise win, Wall Street’s attitude toward the sector has switched from “anything but” to “anything goes.”

“After yet another year of strong outperformance for cable stocks, investors might be forgiven for assuming that all the good news must at long last be fully discounted in the sector,” MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett wrote. “On the contrary, however, we think there is a good deal more room to run.”

Related:Viewer Watch 2017: Download the Complete Report [subscription required]

BARRIERS GET LOWER

Moffett’s optimism is fueled by three factors: lower taxes, less regulation and lower capital intensity.

Lower taxes, one of the promises of the new administration, should help lift all boats in the market. But cable, with high cash-flow margins (around 39% to 40%), low capital intensity (around 15%), could increase its trading multiples from about 7 times cash flow to 9.5 times cash flow if the corporate tax rate dips from 38% to 15%, according to Moffett.

On the regulatory front, the Trump administration is expected to reverse Title II regulation of the broadband business, which could open the door for usage-based broadband pricing and even material charges for interconnection or peering, two items that were off-limits under outgoing Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler.

Related:The FCC's New Playbook

Capital intensity is expected to drop as more and more functionality is placed in the cloud and more customers get their video through apps, extending the life of set-top boxes in the field and reducing the need to buy new ones. Moffett estimated that a reduction in capital intensity from 15% to 13% would result in an increase of warranted valuations of almost a full turn of cash flow.

Telsey Advisory Group media analyst Tom Eagan was encouraged by cable’s subscriber performance for the year. While pay TV subscribers fell harder in 2016 than in the prior year, cable nearly halved its losses for the year.

That could encourage some privately held cable operators to tap the public markets. Altice USA, the domestic arm of European telecom company Altice N.V., has already said it is investigating an initial public offering of a minority interest in the U.S. cable operation. Eagan said he believes others could step up to the IPO plate in 2017, including privately owned Cox Communications and Mediacom Communications.

Moffett said increased competition from over-the-top services could erode customer growth, but that the greatest threat could come from 5G wireless services. The higher-speed data technology is expected to take years to fully deploy, but already Verizon has said it plans to conduct trials in 2017.

Related:New Normal: Digital Distribution [subscription required]

“If there is a downside risk to multiples, this is it,” Moffett said of 5G.

The analyst was less fearful of OTT services, in part because they have been here for years and also because what was supposed to be the category killer — AT&T’s DirecTV Now — has been plagued early on by spotty service and disruptions. New OTT offerings from Hulu and Google in 2017 are expected to have an impact, just not a very great one.

“In all likelihood, however, these services will pose a bigger headline risk than they will a financial one,” Moffett wrote. “Cable’s broadband moat provides a very powerful pricing counterbalance. By charging a premium for standalone broadband, and by upselling a portion of cord-cutters to faster broadband tiers, cable operators can relatively easily insulate themselves from subscriber losses to cord-cutting.”

On the programming side, 2016 was a mixed bag as cord-cutting and skinny bundles chipped away at what was once considered to be rock solid subscriber bases. The Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN took the highest-profile hit — it lost an estimated 7 million subscribers over the past two years and about 10 million since 2010 — but across the board networks averaged a loss of about 2% of their subscribers. That had a domino effect on other parts of the business, affecting affiliate fees and ad rates for even the strongest networks.

AT&T’s pending $108.7 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc., expected to close by the end of 2017, gave a lift to programmers and refueled interest in vertical integration. If that deal passes regulatory muster — and many analysts believe it will — it could start a chain reaction in M&A. A more laissez-faire regulatory attitude also could strengthen existing vertically integrated Comcast-NBCUniversal and others by allowing exclusive content for distributors.

OUTLOOK ON MEASUREMENT

Eagan said that despite negative headlines for the advertising business overall, ad agency stocks and fundamentals performed well. On the measurement side of the business, Eagan noted that Nielsen may have won the battle but not the war, saying both Nielsen and comScore will “benefit from marketer demand for third-party digital metric verification.”

Internal stresses helped pressure Viacom into another year of poor performance as infighting between CEO Philippe Dauman and controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone resulted in the former’s resignation in August. While the stock got a lift from talks concerning a recombination with former corporate sister CBS, those discussions ended in December with no deal.

While the hope is that new CEO Bob Bakish, a longtime Viacom international executive, can turn things around, it could take time. Meanwhile, Viacom’s ad revenue continues to slide, executives continue to leave, and its once-strong Paramount film studio limps along.

“For Viacom, if anything could go wrong for them, it did,” MoffettNathanson senior research analyst Michael Nathanson wrote in a note to clients.

AMC Networks, parent of AMC, IFC, WE tv, Sundance and BBC America, saw its stock drop more than 50% in 2016 as investors worried that it was too dependent on one program, albeit a big one: The Walking Dead. While that series remains the No. 1 scripted show on television, AMC is facing increasing pressure to come up with hits, as are other programmers like Scripps Networks Interactive (parent of Food Network and HGTV) and Discovery Communications.

The amount of commercials in TV network programming rose to 10.9 minutes per hour in November from 10.7 minutes last year, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research Group.

Several networks have been talking about reducing commercial loads to make their programming more attractive to viewers, who are being lured away by commercial-free alternatives like Netflix and over-the-top video sources, which often have fewer, shorter breaks.

Commercial loads were down at networks run by Time Warner, Scripps Networks Interactive and 21st Century Fox, according to Wieser.

Viacom, which has talked about lowering the amount of commercials in some new programming on some of its networks, was up for the month.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Former Turner Broadcasting CEO Phil Kent has been nominated to sit on the board of Scripps Networks Interactive.

Kent, who retired from TBS in 2013, is succeeding David Galloway, who is retiring from the Scripps board.

“We are delighted to add a media executive with the knowledge and experience of Phil Kent to the board of Scripps Networks Interactive,” company chairman Kenneth Lowe said. “Phil has led complex organizations that grew in the face of increased competition, and has a deep understanding of the international media landscape that will be critical as we continue to focus on growth outside the United States. His strategic knowledge and commercial acumen will be invaluable to the board and the company.”

In a 20-year career with Turner, Kent headed up home entertainment, international networks and CNN.

To catch a millennial, you have to go where the Pokémon GO fans go. The HR team at Scripps Networks Interactive made that play at a recent information-technology recruitment event in Knoxville, Tenn., and was pleased by the results.

Setting up a booth at CodeStock, the infotech gathering at the Knoxville Convention Center, Scripps HR staffer Christine Jones suggested placing it near a “PokeStop” — a place where Pokémon Go players can collect items they need to capture more Pokémon.

More of the Aug. 22, 2016, Edition of Through the Wire:‘Olympic Channel’ Lets Games Continue| A Commission by Any Other Name

Chris Barksdale, vice president of human resources at Scripps, said that while he couldn’t cite specific figures on how many Pokémon players came by, Scripps recruiters were busy that day speaking with smartphone- carrying people and came away with quite a few leads.

“Pokémon Go had just been released and its use was growing rapidly,” Barksdale said in a Scripps blog post on the topic. “We figured setting up near a PokeStop would help drive traffic to our booth, and we were right. Young people today want to experience their work the same way they experience their lives, and that’s frequently through their [smart]phone.”

As the private jets returned from Allen & Co.’s annual media mogul summer camp in Sun Valley, Idaho, last week, speculation around possible deals in the content sector grew louder.

Allen’s conference has been the petri dish for several huge media mergers over the past several decades — including The Walt Disney Co.’s 1995 purchase of Capital Cities/ABC, Comcast’s 2009 acquisition of NBCUniversal and Verizon Communications’s 2014 purchase of AOL.

And this year’s soirée comes at a pivotal point in the content business, as programmers contemplate adding scale to compete against heftier distributors like Charter Communications and Altice USA, as well as subscription video-on-demand services such as Netflix.

At the same time, boardroom turmoil at Viacom — Shari Redstone, a company director and Sumner Redstone’s daughter, was a much-watched figure at the Allen conference — could set the deal wheels moving at full speed. Analysts would like to see Viacom and its former bandmate CBS reunite, but there is also the possibility the parent of MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central could continue to go solo or attract the attention of a larger suitor, such as 21st Century Fox.

Consolidation has always been an option for programmers in a land of giant distributors. Most analysts expected a wave of deals after Charter made its first overtures to Time Warner Cable in 2013, starting with Fox’s aborted $80 billion takeover of Time Warner Inc.

MERGER FEVER RETURNS

Content merger fever waned in 2015, when stocks fell sharply over subscriber-loss concerns. But deal activity has begun to pick back up, with last month’s $4.4 billion Lionsgate-Starz merger and NBCUniversal’s $3.8 billion purchase of DreamWorks Animation.

Download "Media's Free Radicals," a guide to the content consolidation possibilities. 

According to research company Mergermarket, which tracks the number and value of media deals globally, 260 transactions worth $43.9 billion were announced in the first half of 2016, up 91% from the $23 billion announced in the same period in 2015. That pace is expected to continue.

Mergermarket TMT Group Sector editor Ed Mullane said in an interview last week that more deals will come in the wake of Starz-Lionsgate, as programmers look to insulate themselves from larger distributors demanding lower prices and skinnier packages, as well as SVOD companies that are pumping billions of dollars into original programming.

“Lionsgate and Starz is an example of two companies that didn’t have the scale to compete against the new players and the incumbent players,” Mullane said.

Netflix, which has committed to spend about $6 billion on content in 2016, also is driving consolidation talk, especially among smaller programmers.

“How are production companies going to compete against that?” Mullane asked. Bigger may be better.

THE LIONS’ DEN

Lionsgate, which many pundits see as cable legend John Malone’s latest consolidation vehicle — he owns 4.5% of Lionsgate and is the largest individual Starz shareholder — is expected to go back to the deal well. And it makes sense in that Malone’s hands are tied on the distribution-deal front, at least for the near term, as Charter focuses on integrating its $78.7 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable.

On a conference call with analysts after the Starz transaction was announced, Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns said the Starz deal “would not preclude us from additional acquisitions.”

Wunderlich Securities media analyst Matt Harrigan said he believes Lionsgate will reenter the deal fray within the next 18 to 24 months, but its potential targets are unclear. Movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is a possible target, as is Viacom’s Paramount Pictures, which is in the process of selling off a minority interest.

While in the past some pundits have pointed to another Malone holding — Discovery Communications — as a target, particularly because of its reality programming, that value diminished after Lionsgate’s purchase of Pilgrim Studios late last year.

For Harrigan, the most likely consolidation candidates are Viacom, CBS and Time Warner Inc., for two simple reasons: Viacom and CBS shouldn’t have been broken up in 2009 in the first place, and Time Warner’s corporate structure — it has no overly dominant shareholder — makes it ripe for a takeover.

Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, which abandoned its $80 billion pursuit of Time Warner Inc. back in 2014 after the Time Warner’s board of directors nixed that deal, could rethink another bid. Adding to the speculation is that Time Warner’s stock has fallen below the $85-per-share threshold of the old Fox bid.

Back in 2014, one of Time Warner’s biggest arguments against the merger was that it could surpass the per share valuation of the Fox off er, which it did for a period. But like other media stocks, Time Warner shares have fallen, as pressures from over-the-top and subscription video-on-demand providers and a weak advertising market have taken their toll.

Time Warner stock is up about 15% ($9.87 each) so far in 2016, but the shares are down 14.6% in the past 12 months. Like many programming stocks, Time Warner never fully recovered from the August 2015 sector bloodbath in the wake of Disney’s revelation that sports programmer ESPN had lost subscribers. It was also the last time that Time Warner shares traded above the $85-per-share mark Fox set in its aborted takeover bid.

Typically, weak stocks and readily available capital — despite the economy, debt is still cheap — lead to deals.

“The obvious target is Time Warner,” Mullane said. “It doesn’t have the ownership structure that large companies do. Everyone would target Time Warner.”

A Viacom-CBS deal makes sense in that adding broadcast network CBS could give cable programmer Viacom additional leverage during carriage negotiations. For CBS, the benefits are less evident, and Harrigan said that a recombination could attract attention from regulators.

“Gigantism can be a little unhealthy,” Harrigan said.

Adding to the fray is the emergence of several Chinese companies into the U.S. entertainment sector. Focus Media, a Chinese advertising and media conglomerate, has said it plans to invest heavily in sports and entertainment properties. Other players like e-commerce company Alibaba and conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group have focused on movie studios, but could turn their heads toward pay TV content.

Still, Harrigan said he doesn’t see an imminent combination of major media properties because of the regulatory angle. For example, he estimated that a Fox-Time Warner hookup would create a company that generates about 40% of total linear TV production through its 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. studios. That concentration, he said, has little chance of cutting the regulatory mustard.

Moreover, the top five programmers already have a “ridiculous amount of eyeballs,” Harrigan said, so adding another huge company to the mix doesn’t necessarily solve any problems.

Plus, with the advent of skinny bundles, consumers want packages of fewer channels, not more networks being forced on them from a mega-programmer with dozens of channels.

SMALL BUT MIGHTY

Indeed, for all of Malone’s emphasis on “free radicals” in the programming business, there’s no guarantee that bigger is better. Some of the most-watched and respected shows on TV are coming from smaller networks like AMC, which has the top-rated show on cable, The Walking Dead. AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan said as much at last month’s Gabelli & Co. Movie & Entertainment conference.

“Big is better if it’s really good stuff, and big is worse and is a weight if it’s not really good stuff ,” Sapan said at the conference. “You would rather not have that weight because it will actually burden your fair reward for what you have that is performing.

“Scale’s good if the stuff punches at or above weight,” he added. “Scale’s bad if the stuff punches below weight.”

There is an argument for both philosophies, Harrigan said, adding that having multiple networks can help insulate a programmer from a chilly ratings spell.

“If you’re hot and you’re small, people want the content,” Harrigan said. “But if you hit a cold streak, you’re irrelevant.”

If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em.

With the two major distribution mergers of the past year — Charter Communications-Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems-Altice N.V. — heading for the finish line, some analysts wonder if content could be the next beehive of activity on the deal front.

Greasing the speculation wheels: Comcast’s $3.8 billion pact to buy DreamWorks Animation, which some believe could encourage other TV distributors to take a harder look at the programming space.

The DreamWorks Animation deal could shed new light on programming targets, BTIG media analyst Brandon Ross said in a blog post, especially as distributors look for new ways to differentiate themselves from the growing list of over-the-top providers. DreamWorks was just the first in what could be a series of content deals, Ross said.

SUITORS FOR PARAMOUNT STAKE

Viacom has said it has more than a dozen potential suitors for the planned sale of a minority interest in movie studio Paramount. And talk heated up in April that mixed martial arts content provider Ultimate Fighting Championship was for sale. Reports in the MMA industry press said UFC could be worth as much as $6 billion.

Ross said the potential jewel in the content heap could be World Wrestling Entertainment, the scripted sports entertainment juggernaut headed by Vince McMahon. While neither WWE nor McMahon has even hinted at being interested in a sale, Ross said the time could be right to give some serious thought to it.

WWE makes sense for a strategic buyer on several fronts. Its content is popular with young viewers (Monday Night Raw is a consistent ratings draw for USA Network), it has a strong digital presence with the over-the-top WWE Network and, at a total valuation of about $1.3 billion, it’s digestible for larger players.

Comcast’s willingness to pay a premium for DreamWorks Animation — about 20 times cash flow — to basically take out controlling shareholder and CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg indicates it might be willing to act similarly with McMahon.

Keeping Vince McMahon around would be critical to any deal with WWE, Ross said. A strategic investment might be the best way to make a deal happen.

FBN Securities cable, satellite and entertainment managing director Robert Routh thinks the chances the McMahons would sell are slim. Besides, he said, content-hungry distributors have several other potential targets.

Routh does not think the Comcast-DreamWorks deal will necessarily lead to more content acquisitions by Comcast: federal regulators would probably prevent that. And with NBCUniversal already in the fold, Comcast probably doesn’t need more content.

Pairing content and distribution used to be more commonplace. For example, Time Warner Inc. owned both Time Warner Cable and Turner Broadcasting Systems and Tele-Communications Inc. was paired with Liberty Media. Those companies and their successors eventually split programming and distribution assets after synergies became less apparent.

“It’s kind of like Back to the Future,” Routh said. “Distributors are starting to say that owning content with distribution, under the right conditions, can make a ton of sense, especially if it’s highly focused content.”

CHART: Back to the Future

Pay TV operators, once keen on divesting programming assets from their distribution business, may be looking at adding content to the mix as they seek to further differentiate themselves from OTT competitors. Here are a few possible candidates for consolidation.

Company                       Market Cap                                                   Top Content

Starz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$2.67 billion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Starz, Encore

Scripps Networks . . . . . $7.87 billion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HGTV, Food Network

Viacom . . . . . . . . . . . . . $16.5 billion . . . . . . . . . MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon

AMC Networks . . . . . . . $4.6 billion . . . . . . . . AMC, IFC, WE tv, BBCA, SundanceTV

MGM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3.5 billion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . thisTV, EPIX

WWE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.27 billion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WWE Network

Lionsgate . . . . . . . . . . . $3.26 billion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EPIX

DHX Media . . . . . . . . . $762.6 million . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SuperWhy!

RLJ Entertainment . . .  $8.06 million . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Acorn TV

SOURCES: FDM Securities, Dow Jones, Multichannel News estimates

Travel Channel said it has ordered an 11th season of Don Wildman-hosted Mysteries at the Museum. The network said the current, 10th season premiered on April 7 (9 p.m. ET) with an episode that surpassed season-nine averages among viewers ages 25-54 (up 26%) and among women ages 25-54 (up 38%). 

“Don is an incredible story teller so we’ll keep all the great stories that are at the show’s core but, fans of the series will find that the upcoming season amps up the fun, is a bit lighter and has shorter segments that are easier to digest,” Courtney White, senior vice president, programming and production, at Travel Channel, said in a release. “Mysteries at the Museum scratches that curiosity itch for viewers – giving them a roadmap so they can travel to discover the fascinating tales behind the world’s hidden treasures.”

Scripps rolled out new content for HGTV, Food Network, DIY, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel and Great American Country during the presentation as it builds on the groups’ ratings momentum with a stable of hit shows that both attract adults and families along with advertisers.

“We’ve been successful by laser focusing on single genre networks in the home, food and travel categories,” said Jon Steinlauf, president of national ad sales and marketing for Scripps Networks Interactive. “By staying in those lanes and making the best products that we can, the results are a collection of iconic brands that our viewers have come to love and trust.”

Leading the way is HGTV, which set a ratings record during the first quarter 2016 and will premiere 17 new series throughout the years. New shows include Listed Sisters, which follows real-estate and home design sisters Alana and Lex LeBlanc; Good Bones, which features mother/daughter home flipping duo Karen E. Laine and Mina Starsiak, and renovation series Home Town, Masters Of Flip and Vintage Flip. The network is also planning an as-yet-titled project featuring actress Gabrielle Union and her husband, NBA star Dwyane Wade.

Sister home improvement-themed network DIY Network has ordered 360 hours of original home improvement programming, including new series Sight Unseen and Nashville Flipped, said officials.

Food Network and Cooking Channel TV combined will add more than 30 news series including such series as 12 Hungry Yelpers, in which online reviewers help restaurants in need of a reputation upgrade; Cake Masters, starring cake master Duff Goldman, and Cooks vs. Cons, in which home cooks are pitted against professionals, said network officials.

Travel Channel will add several celebrity names to its lineup of programming with new shows The Best Place To Be, from actress/entrepreneur Queen Latifah; and Celebrity Adventure Club, featuring actors John Cryer, Terry Crews and Eric Stonestreet.

Great American Country will bring back series such as Going RV and Lake Guys as part of the network’s 470 hours of lifestyle programming, said network officials.

RELATED:Recruiting Tips for TV's Digital Age

As the pay TV industry continues its digital transformation, the makeup of the workforce required to keep it going is taxing recruiting efforts, throwing programmers and distributors into a talent competition that rivals anything on reality TV.

In this competition, job-seekers are the judges and employers are the contestants vying to be given a chance. Social-media specialists, cross-platform content producers, app developers, network engineers, IT security pros, data jockeys and other in-demand candidates are in command of the buzzers in the big black chairs, and pay TV recruiters hit the stage with their acts:

Wanted:Content developer and TV fan passionate about our brand who can create short-form video, post it online, tweet it, put it on Facebook and then parse who’s engaging with it and why.

Wanted:Cloud architect and TV fan passionate about our brand who can create infrastructure required to support future TV Everywhere strategy and interface with Big Data system to parse who’s engaging with TVE apps and why.

TV businesses have an overwhelming need for an elusive candidate who has blended skills across multiple platforms in an environment where the traditional lines between users and IT, production and distribution, even digital and analog platforms, have blurred. Pay TV companies are no longer simply recruiting against each other, but against an insatiable demand for digital and tech pros across all industries, particularly the digital companies they’re increasingly competing against for eyeballs.

Networks and multichannel distributors are trying to fill the same digital and technology roles, requiring the same scarce skills, as a group of companies many simply refer to as “the Googles” — Google, Apple, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon are the most commonly cited — the über-aspirational digital companies for millennials coming into the marketplace.

While pay TV’s digital transformation has been swift and impressive to industry insiders, job seekers from outside the pay TV ecosphere are harder to convince.

“There’s a perception, whether true or not, that we aren’t as far along as we should be,” Renee Hauch, executive vice president of media and entertainment industry recruiter Carlsen Resources, said. “And that has affected the recruiting.”

RELATED:"The Pay in Pay TV," a look at compensation trends in the pay TV industry excerpted from CTHRA's 2015 Compensation Surveys of MSOs and programmers

Turner Sports found that an internship program originally created to give recent college grads, including student-athletes, a break into the sports media business yielded the kind of candidates it needed for wider digital initiatives.

The company designed the program in 2010 as part of its year-round partnership with the NCAA, selecting 10 recent college graduates to cover Turner’s NCAA portfolio. Six years later, the program draws 1,600 applicants, and the current class of 10 interns is working not just on content, but across product management, editorial, video production and marketing, “all with a digital focus,” Turner Sports executive vice president and general manager Matt Hong said.

“While we created the program principally as a way to help individuals break into the sports industry, something that has traditionally been tough to do, it also serves as a beneficial tool to Turner Sports to have a pool of incredible talent from which to fill permanent roles at the end of the internship year,” Hong said. About half of those who complete the program stay on with Turner Sports at the end.

Since then, Turner Sports has created a similar program to support its social media eff orts for its National Basketball Association, NCAA men’s basketball tournament, Major League Baseball, PGA and ELeague assets.

GOING OUTSIDE

“The pay TV industry is pretty small, and people maintain tight-knit relationships,” Chris Barksdale, Scripps’s vice president of human resources, said. “When you start trying to expand beyond our industry, it’s really hard to find someone with the right amount of industry knowledge and a fresh perspective.”

Add to that the tech credentials: Barksdale said Scripps is looking for cloud architects, cybersecurity specialists for “a wholly reimagined team, starting from scratch, to run and build our security going forward,” and developers. “Put anything in front of that, and we need it,” he said, citing content, apps and software developers as examples.

“Our challenge is, we have two voices,” Barksdale said. “We have strong linear TV brands, and that is really helpful in recruiting when we find people who are passionate about those. But we also have a second voice, around technology, and that is a whole brand that I am laser-focused on creating a voice for.”

He’s crafting that voice to counter any notion that an evolving traditional-TV company can’t play in the same sandbox with the Googles: “We play with cool new technologies, and we’re innovative and competitive with Silicon Valley, with great, fulfilling jobs.”

SIDEBAR: Embracing Digital to Fill Digital Jobs

As Scripps Networks Interactive copes with the fact that it’s as much a digital/technology company as a pay TV programmer, its human resources department has one overarching mission: Connect with the right candidate at the right time.

“iOS app developers are not hanging out on LinkedIn,” Chris Barksdale, SNI’s vice president of human resources, said. “You have to go find them in a place where they’re comfortable, like a forum for a technology they trust, and speak to them there. Recruiting for digital talent is a very different proposition now, vs. five to eight years ago.”

In its quest to connect with that talent, Scripps’s HR team is embracing digital tools to fill digital jobs — “technology that connects us to the places that our target candidates are and where we have a chance to define our voice,” Barksdale said.

When you’re recruiting against Google and Netflix, you can’t lose any time. Scripps HR has streamlined the way it recruits candidates, tracks applicants and fills positions by overhauling its backend HR system and giving staff mobile front-end tools.

“All of our stuff is in one system, within the same infrastructure, and it’s all current,” Barksdale said. “I can use it on my phone, my iPad, my laptop, and on each I can do all the things I need to do as an HR manager.”

With a new infrastructure and mobility in place, Barksdale is moving on to phase two: bolting on additional digital tools to maximize recruiters’ reach and efficiency.

“As jobs become harder to fill and we shift the way we look for talent, we need our recruiters to spend more time sourcing candidates and less time on tasks,” Barksdale said.

Scripps Networks Interactive chief financial and administrative officer and chief development officer Joseph NeCastro is retiring after 13 years at the company.

The company said its international division, headed by Jim Samples, will now report directly to CEO Ken Lowe. Samples will also be appointed to succeed NeCastro as chairman of TVN, the Polish media company Scripps Networks acquired last year.

NeCastro will continue as an advisor to Scripp Networks' International division.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Neil Regan has joined Scripps Networks Interactive as vice president, programming for Travel Channel. He will report directly to Courtney White, who was recently promoted to senior vice president, programming, at the network. Regan will manage the development and production of series and specials for Travel Channel, the network said.  

He joins Travel Channel after a three-year stint as senior vice president, current programming and development for Zodiak New York, where he developed and oversaw series and pilots for HGTV, NBC, Discovery, National Geographic Channel, Food Network, E!, Esquire and Pop, Scripps said. He previously worked as a showrunner for such production companies as Left/Right, RDF (now Zodiak), Sharp Entertainment, True Entertainment and Atlas Media "where he developed a reputation for overcoming complex creative and logistical challenges." His producing credits include ABC-TV’s Wife Swap, HGTV’s Hawaii Life and Hidden Potential, Food Network’s The Next Food Network Star, Doorknock Dinners and Follow That Food and Discovery Channel’s Punkin’ Chunkin’.

KAREN GRINTHAL

TITLE: Senior VP, National Ad Sales, Scripps Networks Interactive

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Spearheaded growth of Food Network, helped launch Cooking Channel, senior VP of marketing and communications for Turner Broadcasting Sales

QUOTE: “No one ever put a boundary in front of me and said, ‘This is your world, you’re ad sales.’ My ideas were always welcome.”

— Karen Grinthal

Karen Grinthal made a huge leap of faith nearly 19 years ago when she left a job at an established cable-programming giant to work for a fledgling programmer called Food Network.

At the time, Grinthal said that she held a prestigious position, as a senior vice president of marketing and communications at Turner Broadcasting Sales, where she had been for eight years. But she was looking for a smaller venue where she could make a real difference, a place that had the entrepreneurial spirit of a startup. Food Network fit the bill, although the career move raised eyebrows among her peers.

“I took a job that nobody could understand, because I went from being [a senior vice president] to being a sales manager, from a multi-hundred-million-dollar responsibility to a brand that had no revenue and no ratings,” said Grinthal, now senior vice president of national ad sales for Scripps Networks Interactive.

“It’s very tempting to go for the title, go for the most money, go for whatever will give you the most prestige,” she said. “And so basically, it was a question of making a decision to totally relinquish prestige and go for what I felt in my gut would make sense for me.”

TURNING FOOD INTO A POWERHOUSE

Her gamble paid off. This year Grinthal will celebrate almost two decades at Food Network. During her tenure, Food Network has evolved from a network with less than $15 million in ad revenue to one with more than $700 million in national ad billings.

The channel made celebrities of chefs — such as Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentiis — and turned food into a pop-culture programming genre.

“We have a star-making machine,” said Grinthal, who is credited with being smart, creative, passionate and ever-calm.

She pioneered innovative ways to integrate advertisers into Food Network programming, a change in strategy. And sponsors are offered cross-platform opportunities across TV, digital and print, via Food Network Magazine.

“I don’t know of any other ad sales executive who has meant more to a channel’s growth and success than what Karen Grinthal has meant to Food Network,” Jon Steinlauf, president of ad sales and marketing for Scripps Networks Interactive said, noting her tenure at Food began even before Scripps bought the network from Belo in 1997. “Karen’s passion, dedication, loyalty and tenure to a single TV network are unsurpassed in the annals of cable. She has literally built our ad sales business from its humble beginnings into a power brand in the ad market.”

Steinlauf said he has worked with Grinthal “side by side” for 24 years, first at Turner and then at Scripps. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Grinthal joined Turner in 1988 as an account executive and rose through the ranks to become a senior vice president of ad sales for its entertainment division. She began her career as a media planner at Doyle Dane Bernbach and then spent several years in radio sales.

BUILDING THE RECIPE FOR COOKING CHANNEL

Grinthal’s career achievements aren’t limited to Food Network. She was also instrumental in the successful 2010 relaunch of Fine Living as the Cooking Channel, a flanker brand to Food Network. Steinlauf credited Grinthal with being part of a core Scripps management team, adding that her input is sought not only on advertising but programming and company strategy, such as Cooking Channel’s creation, as well.

“We sat in a room and strategized about what it could be, and from the day that we strategized about it until we put it on the air as a full-blown network was six months,” Grinthal said. “Quite amazing.”

Her long tenure at Scripps is also an amazing feat in the TV industry. Grinthal said she and her ad-sales team — where there is little turnover — don’t get stale at the company because of the constant demand to adapt to the changing media landscape.

“The biggest challenge has been the constant reinvention and refreshment of what the brand means to advertisers,” she said.

For example, for years Food Network had a policy of zero product integration in its programming. Grinthal said she walked away from “advertisers waving money in our faces” rather than risk tarnishing the brand in its early days. Now Food Network is doing innovative partnerships and brand integrations using the filter of whether it makes sense for the advertiser and the network, and whether it makes a show better, according to Grinthal.

LANDING PRODUCT PARTNERSHIPS

One of the greatest partnerships that Food Network ever did was about eight years ago with Red Lobster, engineered by Grinthal, according to Steinlauf. During an episode of Food Network Star, contestants competed in a challenge to create a seafood dish that would be served at Red Lobster restaurants across the country as a special the very next day. The winning recipe for white chocolate tilapia was on the menu.

Back then, Karen Chester was at Red Lobster and worked with Grinthal on that product integration, which she deemed a success. Chester is now vice president of media services for Bloomin’ Brands, whose restaurants include Outback Steakhouse. That chain’s projects with Food Network have included its executive chef serving as a judge on Chopped, Chester said.

Grinthal’s willingness to be open to new ideas, and come up with ideas, “makes it a partnership that works year after year, not one and done,” with Outback enjoying “a halo effect” through its alignment with Food Network, Chester said.

The network’s explosive success has given Grinthal great satisfaction.

“It has grown exponentially from a little tiny thing to a culture-changing icon,” she said. “So that’s one element of what’s kept me here.”

Deirdre O’Hearn was put in charge of programming and development for Food Network and Cooking Channel with the departure of Bob Tuschman, her boss, on Jan. 31.

The moves follow the departure of long-time Food Network president Brooke Johnson last year.

With Johnson gone, the creative direction of Food Network is now overseen by Kathleen Finch, who in August was named chief programming, content and brand officer, for Scripps Networks Interactive, parent of both Food and Cooking.

O’Hearn, known as Didi, is senior VP of programming and development and will report to Finch.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Travel Channel has ordered up a third season of Jack Maxwell's Booze Traveler, greenlighting 16 more one-hour episodes of the globe-trotting, alcohol-fueled exercise in cultural awareness. The Scripps Networks Interactive outlet said the show's second season has seen a 55% gain in ratings among adults ages 25-54 versus the average of the first season's premieres. It also draws a median household income level 15% higher than the U.S. median average while ranking among the top five most-watched shows on the network, Travel Channel said. Maxwell's show has visited such locales as Argentina, Finland, Guatemala, Hawaii, Sicily, Tanzania and Texas, where he meets with the locals and shares their local favorite drinks.

“When Jack sits down with a stranger and a couple of drinks, the whole world opens up,” Courtney White, the newly named senior vice president, programming and production, at Travel Channel said in a release. “As we’ve seen from the overwhelmingly positive response to our hit series like Bizarre Foods and Expedition Unknown, Travel Channel viewers love discovering a location through its people and stories. It’s no surprise that with more than 1.8 million viewers each week, Booze Traveler would find similar success.”

Booze Traveler is produced by Karga Seven Pictures in association with White Reindeer Productions.

“As part of our ongoing work to transform Travel Channel into one of the leading entertainment brands in the United States and around the world, we are moving the network to Scripps Networks Interactive’s headquarters in Knoxville, Tenn. This shift will enable Travel Channel to benefit from much deeper resources as we look to further grow reach and audience share,” the network said in a statement from chief communications officer Dylan Jones.

Travel Channel, launched in 1987, is majority owned and controlled by SNI. Former owner Cox Communications sold 65% to Scripps in 2009 for about $1 billion and retained the rest. it has about 89 million subscribers. About two years ago, Scripps Networks consolidated GAC operations in Knoxville, leaving a building in Nashville that now is occupied by RFD-TV parent Rural Media Group.

Henry Ahn has been promoted to president, content distribution & marketing, at Scripps Networks Interactive. He had been executive vice president, and he reports to chief revenue officer Steven J. Gigliotti, who was promoted to that position in March. Scripps said Ahn "will now oversee all aspects of distribution with both traditional linear partners and the rapidly increasing range of businesses seeking high-quality digital content."

“Henry is one of the most outstanding executives working in the content distribution space today. His knowledge and resolve have been essential to the successful renegotiation of major distribution contracts with key cable and satellite platforms, and he has been instrumental in ensuring that our brands have become must-haves among emerging non-traditional distribution services,” Gigliotti said of Ahn in a release.

Ahn moved to Scripps in 2011 after 17 years at NBCUniversal, where he served in various affiliate sales, business development and financial management roles before being named executive vice president of TV networks distribution. Earlier he worked as a financial analyst at HBO and Comedy Central and managed strategic planning and analysis for EMI Records Group. In 2013 he was honored with the NCTA Vanguard Award for Marketing. 

Overall, content stocks slid about 13% in the third quarter, led by Viacom (down 33.2%), Scripps Networks Interactive (down 24.8%), Discovery Communications (down 21.7%) and Time Warner Inc. (down 21.3%).

Content stocks were battered in August when fears over cord-cutting and skinny bundles — smaller packages of programming offered at lower prices — drove the stocks down to record lows. The Walt Disney Co., parent of once-invincible ESPN, led the decline when it said during a quarterly conference call that smaller content packages had cost the sports network subscribers. It subsequently lowered its cash-flow growth guidance from high-single digit percentage growth through 2016 to midsingle digit growth.

The Disney news touched off a firestorm in the market for cable-network stocks, all of which were down at least 10% at one point between Aug. 5 and Aug. 6. The sector as a whole lost more than $60 billion in market capitalization.

The stocks have regained some of that ground but were still down in the quarter, a deficit that erased the sector’s 8.4% gain for second quarter of the year. For the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, the sector was down nearly 3% — not bad, considering the declines earlier in the third quarter.

Distribution was an entirely different story. Cord-cutting and over-the-top fears weighed on the sector as well in May — as a whole, the top four cable MSOs rose a collective 2.6% during that time — but rebounded as the months went on.

The distribution sector rose nearly 3% in the third quarter, boosted by European telecom giant Altice’s $17.7 billion bid for Cablevision Systems. The uptick was just below the 3.9% increase in the second quarter. For the full year, distributors are up nearly 12%.

Deal activity is the main driver of that growth. Besides Altice’s offer for Cablevision, which it hopes to complete by the first half of 2016, the Netherlands-based telecom giant also has a $9.1 billion deal to acquire midsized cable operator Suddenlink Communications. That deal is scheduled to close by the end of the year.

Couple that with Charter’s pending $78.7 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable — slated for a year-end close — and the cable deal plate appears quite full for the moment.

Altice recently completed the debt-financing portion of its Cablevision purchase, raising about $8.6 billion in bank and bond debt, but at higher prices than originally expected. Some have said the deal’s increased pricing could point to a growing skittishness in the debt markets for financing such deals.

He said he doesn’t expect much deal activity in the fourth quarter, but that’s mainly due to the number of deals currently in the pipeline, rather than a tightening of the finance markets.

Altice will likely spend the rest of the year moving its current targets through the regulatory process, he added, as will Charter. Comcast can’t expand in distribution “until we get a different FCC,” he said.

There have been recent deal rumblings on the content side — Starz was reportedly in advanced talks with movie studio Lions Gate Entertainment regarding a possible acquisition.

Starz, which has basically been in play from the day it split off from Liberty Media as a separate company in 2009, has been the subject of acquisition talks for years. Earlier this month reports claimed Starz was negotiating a possible merger with AMC Networks, but that speculation seemed to disappear.

Starz and Lions Gate reportedly discussed merger opportunities a year ago but couldn’t agree on price.

Coffee entrepreneur and adventurer Todd Carmichael, co-founder of the La Colombe gourmet java chain, will kick off his next original series on Travel Channel -- Uncommon Grounds -- on Tuesday, Sept. 14, at 11 p.m. ET/PT. Where his earlier show on the network, Dangerous Grounds, sent him to Haiti, Bolivia and various other dicey locations in search of elusive rare strains of coffee beans, this eight-part series sends the loquacious Carmichael and his cameraman sidekick "Hollywood" far from his Philadelphia home base on different errands of business development and cultural learning, according to the channel. 

Here's the description for "Big In Japan," the debut episode: "Carmichael introduces a revolutionary new device called 'the Dragon' that could change the way coffee is brewed by aficionados around the world. When demand for the device skyrockets, Carmichael takes his invention to Japan in the hopes of finding a business partner that can reliably mass-produce his complex glass design. His mission takes him from the back streets of Tokyo to the rice fields of Okayama where he encounters everything from unconventional foods and nightlife to bullet trains and aikido. As one of the most notoriously eccentric places to conduct business on the planet, Carmichael has his work cut out for him in Japan to complete his cross-cultural deal."

Scripps Networks Interactive said it will purchase 100% of Polish cable network TVN, a deal that is part of an earlier transaction to purchase a stake in the programming company.

Scripps had said back in March that it would purchase 53% of TVN for about $1.5 billion in cash and assumed debt. Under Polish law, Scripps was obligated to make a tender offer to increase its ownership of the networks up to 66% within three months of the first offer. On June 9, Scripps said it decided to offer to purchase the remaining public ownership of TVN and delist it form the Warsaw Stock Exchange. No price for the offer has been set.

“Taking full ownership of TVN will enable Scripps Networks Interactive to fully realize the strategic and financial opportunities afforded by the TVN acquisition,” said SNI chairman and CEO Ken Lowe in a statement. “TVN is a strong and compelling business in one of Europe’s key media markets, and under Markus Tellenbach’s leadership, it will play an important role in our continued expansion in the region.”

TVN is one of the leading media companies in Poland with a portfolio of free-to-air and pay-TV lifestyle and entertainment channels including TVN, TVN 7, TVN Style, TTV, TVN Turbo as well as 24-hour news channel, TVN24, and business news channel TVN24 Biznes i Swiat.

HGTV has renewed Island Life and Island Hunters, two programs in the network's growing stable of fantasy-destination programming. (Other such shows include Beachfront Bargain Hunt, Lakefront Bargain Hunt, Caribbean Life,Vacation House for Free and Hawaii Life.)

DIY, a sister channel in the Scripps Networks Interactive stable, ordered more episodes of real-estate competition show Texas Flip and Move, adventure series Building Alaska and Garage Gold, starring junk-picker Kraig Bantle (pictured in blue t-shirt).

“We’ve achieved 11 consecutive months of ratings growth at HGTV, and DIY Network’s prime impressions are up 8% this quarter,” Allison Page, general manager, HGTV and DIY Network, said in a release. “Island Life, Island Hunters, Building Alaska, Garage Gold and Texas Flip and Move are among the consistent performers on our networks, so we want to keep our programming pipeline filled with new episodes.”

Island Life follows homeowners who are ready to shed the hustle and bustle for the perfect island home. Island Hunters features families in search of their own private island, HGTV said.

DIY's Texas Flip and Move follows three teams of real-estate risk-takers buy dilapidated houses at auction and move the structures off the property that day, which can be dangerous. In Garage Gold, Kraig Bantle and his team as they clean out junk-filled spaces for free, keeping whatever valuable items he finds and wants. Building Alaska showcases the construction of off-the-grid homes, DIY said.

Scripps Networks Interactive’s Tamara Franklin, executive vice president, digital; Viacom’s Debra Lee, BET Networks chair and CEO; AT&T’s Cynthia Marshall, senior vice president, human resources; and Verizon’s Michelle A. Robinson, president, Southeast Region were selected based on their stature and influence within their organizations.

The women on the list are responsible for significant budgets and control subsidiaries, divisions, or departments that affect the fiscal health and direction of their businesses, Black Enterprise said. The magazine featured the women in its February cover story and this week is hosting the Women of Power summit in Orlando, Fla.

“The 50 women identified by Black Enterprise are among a select group of corporate leaders who continue to raise and shatter the glass ceiling,” the magazine said, citing a 2014 Center for American Progress study that found the percentage of women in top management positions and on corporate boards has stalled: Fewer than 9% of top managers are women, according to the study, and women of color hold only 11.9% of managerial and professional posts with just 5.3% of African American women in those positions.

“Our editorial team developed this list to not only celebrate the black female business elite, but to demonstrate that it requires unparalleled expertise and resilience to break through barriers that female executives continue to face today,” Earl "Butch" Graves Jr., president and CEO of Black Enterprise, said.

Scripps’s Franklin, responsible for coordinating overall strategy and activity of the company’s digital business units, was promoted to her current position in January 2014 from senior vice president of affiliate operations and new media distribution. She joined Scripps in 2009 after serving as vice president of business development at Turner Broadcasting.

Viacom’s Lee, who emerged unscathed from Viacom’s recent corporate restructuring, is no stranger to listings honoring top business people. Earlier this year she was named to Billboard’s Power 100 list; she is a member of the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame; and in 2003 received the Distinguished Vanguard Award for Leadership from the National Cable Television Association. She also was selected in 2011 by President Obama to serve on the President’s Management Advisory Board.

AT&T’s Marshall was president of AT&T North Carolina before moving into her current position. She brings more than 30 years of experience to her role, having joined Pacific Bell in 1981 and holding a variety of positions in in operations, human resources, network engineering and planning, and regulatory/external affairs.

Verizon’s Robinson has held a number of positions in regulatory affairs, including executive director-regulatory affairs in California and, prior to that, director-regulatory affairs in the company's Southeast region. She was senior vice president of the Southern region before moving into her current role.

Scripps Networks Interactive reported higher third-quarter profits and an increase in advertising sales

Net income rose 2% to $131 million, or 93 cents per share, in the quarter, from $129 million, or 87 cents a share, a year ago.

Revenues rose 4.5% to $644 million.  Advertising sales increased 5.4% to $432 million and affiliate revenue was up 3.8% to $198 million

The results were mixed because Wall Street analysts had expected 84 cents a share in earnings, which Scripps Networks beat, but $651 million in revenue, where the company fell short.

“Our networks consistently deliver the upscale audience that so many advertisers want to reach, as well as the high quality content that both traditional and new distribution platforms demand. Our compelling lifestyle video programming engages and inspires millions of consumers, across multiple geographies, devices and demographics,” CEO Ken Lowe said in statement. “These solid third-quarter operating results demonstrate our unique competitive advantage, and our ability to create long-term value for shareholders in a changing marketplace.”

Scripps Network’s Lifestyle Media segment, which includes cable channels like Food Network and HGTV, reported a profit of $296 million, up 2.5% from a year ago. Revenue rose 4.2% to $618 million. Ad revenue was up 5%, a bigger gain than other programmers have reported this quarter. Affiliate revenue was up 3.2% to $187 million.

The company said that operating revenues at HGTV rose 7% to $234 million, Food Network was up 4.1% to $212 million. Travel Channel was down 4.9% to $84 million. DIY jumped 9% to $37 million, Cooking Channel gained 7.2% to $28 million and Great American Country was up 16.9% to nearly $8 million.

Scripps Networks digital businesses had operating revenues of $23 million, down 11%.

LaConti has been promoted to senior vice president of Eastern region ad sales for Travel Channel and Great American Country, reporting to Greg Regis, senior vice president of national ad sales for the two networks. LaConti joined the company 12 years ago as an account executive.

Dowdle has been promoted to senior vice president of Midwest and Mid-Central region ad sales for Food Network and Cooking Channel, reporting to Karen Grinthal, senior vice president of national ad sales for the company’s food properties.