Kenneth Solomon

Kenneth Solomon General Information

Description

Mr. Kenneth Solomon serves as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Tennis Channel. He serves as President, of the Tennis Channel of Sinclair Broadcast Group. He serves as Board Member at UTR. He is the Chairman of the Cable Television Network, Ovation TV. He was a key architect in the August 2006 acquisition of the network by a group of private investors led by Hubbard Media Group and including Arcadia Investment Partners, of which he is a partner, Corporate Partners II, Perry Capital, and The Weinstein Company. He was instrumental in helping to develop the network's business plan and its new program and branding direction, and in securing the investor funding and recruiting the executive team currently operating the network as it prepares for a re-launch on June 20, 2007. First launched in 1997, Ovation TV is focused on entertaining, inspiring, and engaging the artist in all of us. The 24-hour channel is the only television network devoted exclusively to art, personal creativity, and making the arts more accessible to viewers in their daily lives. The network showcases the world's greatest artists in theater, dance, opera, literature, film, visual and fine art, music, popular arts, design, photography, and architecture. Ovation TV reaches nearly 15 million subscribers including a national audience via carriage on DIRECTV. He is also Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Tennis Channel, the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to tennis and the lifestyle that surrounds it. In this position, he leads the continued growth of the channel, utilizing more than 20 years of cable, new media, TV production, distribution, and advertising experience. This includes capitalizing on the channel's unique cable-industry value proposition as both a live sports and lifestyle entity, and further developing the network's position as a tennis lifestyle brand. In the past two years under his guidance The Tennis Channel has expanded dramatically across the board: rapid distribution growth has quintupled its reach to 20 million homes; the network has acquired coveted television rights for The French Open: Roland Garros, the Australian Open and others -- now providing coverage of 48 of the world's top 50 tournaments; and he stewarded The Tennis Channel's groundbreaking partnerships with ESPN and investment in the network by the United States Tennis Association, the sport's most powerful governing body. Prior to The Tennis Channel, he held top posts at Universal Television, DreamWorks, News Corp., and Scripps, and founded and led Fine Living Network, where he developed the network from concept to launch in just over a year. He guided Fine Living to one of the fastest network rollouts in history, reaching 21 million homes in its first two years. As President of Universal Studios Television (also Studios USA Television), he oversaw program development and production, as well as marketing and distribution activities on a worldwide basis for the primetime network, cable, syndication, and made-for-television movies. He also pioneered the first licensing of original series across multiple platforms. As co-head of DreamWorks Television, he worked with the new studio's legendary founders in laying the groundwork and helping create and develop its extensive worldwide television operations. He also held senior positions at News Corp., including serving as Executive Vice President of Network Distribution at Fox Broadcasting during its transitional ascending period. At the time he was responsible for all affiliate relations, led the network's successful transition of dozens of CBS, ABC, and NBC affiliates to Fox, and launched the network's NFL and NHL franchises. He has also served as Vice President-Eastern Regional Manager at The Walt Disney Company's Buena Vista Domestic Television, where he reassembled eastern U.S. television marketing and distribution operations. Just prior to Fine Living, he served as founding President of iBlast, and built the nation's largest and farthest-reaching digital distribution network, with 19 major broadcast groups comprising 296 individual television stations, covering 93 percent of U.S. television households. He has served on numerous television association boards, including NATPE and Cable Positive. He has also been honored as "Humanitarian of the Year" by H.E.L.P. Group, one of the largest and most influential children's charities in the western United States.