No company has made bigger inroads in the sports media business in the past eight months than Time Warner Cable.
Under the direction of the company’s chief video and content officer, Melinda Witmer, Time Warner Cable snatched the rights to the Los Angeles Lakers from Fox Sports Net and was instrumental in helping the Pac-12 Conference come up with a plan to launch six regional channels next August. Witmer set up a new division, called TWC Sports, to handle the company’s relationships in the sports community and staffed it with three industry veterans: David Rone, Mark Shuken and Dan Finnerty.
As the top programming executive at the country’s second biggest cable operator, Witmer also has been at the forefront of cutting carriage deals with sports networks like ESPN and Fox Sports that contemplate TV Everywhere.
— John Ourand
WHAT OTHERSARE SAYING
“Melinda is an incredibly tough negotiator and a deft problem solver who is constantly looking for creative win-win scenarios in any negotiation. In addition to being very good at what she does, she’s a great person — which is an added benefit considering the amount of time it takes to get deals done in our business.”
- David Preschlack, ESPN executive vice president, affiliate sales and marketing
