After months of speculation, Crown Media Holdings made matters official Wednesday morning, naming former Court TV chief Henry Schleiff president and CEO effective immediately. The deal was said to have been finalized late Monday. In his new role, Schleiff, who had served as chairman and CEO of Court TV since Oct. 1998, will oversee the day-to-day operations at Hallmark Channel. In May, Schleiff gave up the reins at Court TV after Time Warner acquired the 50 percent stake in the network that it did not already own from Liberty Media. That same month, David Evans resigned from his post as president and CEO of Crown, leaving a vacancy that was not filled until now. In a statement, Schleiff said that he was “delighted to be joining Crown Media,” citing Hallmark’s family-friendly programming. “Operators appreciate Hallmark Channel’s importance to them as one of the few networks in their lineup not programmed toward the younger demographics but, rather, at subscribers who are often the ones actually paying the cable bill and who simply want quality programming they can watch with their family,” Schleiff said. Long regarded as one of cable’s more iconoclastic executives, Schleiff is one of the first names that gets whispered whenever a top network job becomes available. Earlier this summer, Schleiff was rumoured on the short list of external candidates Discovery Communications was considering as a replacement for departing CEO Judith McHale. Last year, he was said to be eyeing CNN president Jon Klein’s corner office––a chunk of real estate Klein still occupies. Prior to joining Court TV, Schleiff served as executive vp for Studios USA, where he oversaw the production of a number of talk shows, most notably The Maury Povich Show. He also put in time at HBO and got his start in television as a freelance gag writer for Saturday Night Live.
Media Week
I wonder how he will change the network?
