People

CABLE WORLD STAFF

@ HOME: Steve Brookstein has been appointed VP-affiliate relations for East Coast operations. He has been a regional SVP of Comcast Cable Communications and was also SVP-marketing. Prior to joining the MSO, he was in advertising in New York.

CNBC: A team from Chattahoochee High School in Alpharetta, Ga., won the network's Internet- based Student Stock Tournament presented by Lincoln Financial Group. The team achieved a 31.6% gain on its portfolio during a period last February when the DJIA fell 36% in comparison. Other winners included teams from Hackley School, Tarrytown, N.Y., Manorhaven School, Port Washington, N.Y., Keystone School, San Antonio, Texas and Workman High School, City of Industry, Calif. The school with the greatest percentage return on its portfolio for the spring semester will be awarded the grand prize of 200 shares of GE common stock. The tournament was the 1998 winner of the Cable TV Public Affairs Association's Beacon Award for Best Use of a Web Site in Cable Programming.

COMCAST SPORTSNET: Michael Barkann, host of Comcast Sportsnet has been named Pennsylvania Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Assn. He has won three Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards and has reported for CBS Sports and USA Network. He will be honored at an awards banquet at the end of April.

CTAM: Lauren Kisser has been named director-information technology. She has been with the organization since 1997, and has been both coordinator and manager of information technology. Prior to joining CTAM, she had been with America Online's Internet division and was a White House intern in the Office of the Social Secretary.

DISCOVERY: Peter Weil has been named VP-controller of programs for Discovery Networks, Europe. He had been acting executive producer for three months. He is a 25-year veteran of the broadcast industry and has worked on various projects for the BBC. He will be based in London and be responsible for program strategy, planning and the reversioning for Discovery's European networks that reach 25 countries.

DISNEY TELEVENTURES: Timothy Bellamy has been named VP-programming licensing. He had been director-business & legal affairs at Fox/Liberty Networks. He had also been director-business & legal affairs for E! Entertainment Television, and prior to that, he worked as an attorney and was an advisor for the cable services bureau of the FCC. Disney TeleVentures is a unit of the Walt Disney Co. responsible for the creative, programming & marketing functions Disney performs in support of americast, the partnership with Ameritech, BellSouth, GTE and SNET.

E! ENTERTAINMENT: Janine Moe has been named to the newly-created position of director-client & creative services. Prior to joining the network, she had been executive director-print advertising for NBC, New York. She had also been with DirecTV where she was director-on-air promotion for Latin American services. Moe also worked for Walt Disney Co. as marketing manager of Buena Vista Home Video International. Jon Helmrich has been promoted to SVP-international development. He had been VP-international development. He has been with the network since before its launch in 1990, and has been instrumental in the network's rapidly expanding global business. Prior to joining the network, he was production manager for HBO-talent and entertainment features. He had also been assistant director-research for CTAM.

ESPN: George W. Bodenheimer, the network's president, has assumed responsibility for all of the network's domestic and international operations. Bodenheimer has been with ESPN since 1981, and has held several executive positions in affiliate sales and marketing. He was also SVP-marketing and EVP-sales and marketing. He was named Cable Marketer of the Year by Advertising Age in 1996. He is on the boards of CTAM and the CAB. He was named to the inaugural "CableFax 100" list of industry leaders last November. FALCON CABLE: The following promotions have been announced: Abel Crespo from controller to VP-corporate controller; Marty Schwartz from director-corporate development to VP-corporate development; and Jabbar Siddiq from financial analyst to director-finance.

FOX SPORTS NET: Ron Clinton has been named asst. GM-Southwest; he had been director-business affairs since 1997. Prior to that, he had been Fox Sports-Rocky Mountain. He began in the cable industry in 1994 as manager of financial planning & analysis for Liberty Sports.

GAME SHOW: Mark Nordman has been named director of the newly-created position of director-business affairs. He joined the network in 1996 as a consultant and has assisted in all areas of legal and business affairs. Prior to that, he was an attorney at Viewer's Choice and he was also corporate counsel for Multi Entertainment Holdings and a business administrator for Lorimar.

INSIGHT COMMUNICATIONS: Patrick Eltzroth has been appointed district VP. He had been director-operations for Comcast-Ft. Wayne where he had been for 18 years. Rob Cote has been named district marketing manager. He has been with Comcast in various marketing positions, mostly recently as sales manager for the Southeast Michigan system. Both of these appointments are in the company's Evansville, Ind., district office.

INSP: Christopher A. Cates has been named president-MediaComm Inc., a subsidiary of the Inspirational Network. He had been SVP-Atlantic Video in Washington, D.C. He also assisted in the launch of Discovery's Your Choice TV, Animal Planet, Z-Music and the Arab Network of America. He is on the board of Good Life Television Network.

LEE HUNT ASSOC.: Dave Landesberg has been named account director where he will coordinate the strategic and creative sides of the company's branding, marketing, advertising and promotion work for PBS. He will oversee the September launch of PBS Kids Channel, the system's first all-digital channel. Prior to joining the company, he was a creative marketing consultant with AMC Networks and had also been account supervisor for Hasbro Toys and Topps Trading Cards.

LIBIT SIGNAL PROCESSING CORP.: The following have joined the company to boost sales and customer applications: Rocky Bridges, sales director; Henry Yen, applications manager; and Ted Colella, regional manager for the East Coast. All three come from Stanford Telecom, a digital telecom manufacturer of hardware and systems.

MOTOROLA: The following have been promoted in the company's multimedia group/Internet and networking group: Bruce Stone from corporate VP/GM to SVP/GM. Prior to joining this group, he was VP/GM of the company's radio products Americas group. He was also GM for the land mobile products sector's European operations headquartered in England; Andrew Audet from product marketing director of the cable data products group to GM; and Jeffrey Walker from product marketing manager of cable data products group to product marketing director. Audet and Walker are located in the company's ING headquarters in Mansfield, Mass.

NEXT CENTURY MEDIA: Gian Fulgoni and Edward Dittus have been named to the company's board. Fulgoni was most recently CEO of Information Resources Inc. Dittus was the founder and CEO of Media Marketing Assessment. The two are the founders of AdWorks2, a joint project of IRI and MMA which will profile the television advertising effectiveness for most consumer packaged goods brands in 50 U.S. markets. The study will be released later this year.

NICKELODEON: Cristina Guzman has been named channel director for the network in Spain. She is a veteran of the Spanish broadcasting industry where she was most recently with Sogecable S.A. where she was assistant director of acquisitions for CITSL. She has also held positions with Canal Plus Spain and Minimax and Canal Satelite. She will be based in Madrid. Steve Grieder has been promoted from VP & creative director to GM of its Latin American operation. He is a TV industry veteran with eight years at MTV. He replaces Taran Swan who is returning to New York. Grieder has served on the board of Promax International since 1994. In addition to being the recipient of various industry awards, he was named International Marketing Executive in 1995 by TV World magazine. Julia Pistor has been promoted from VP-movies to SVP- movies. She was most recently co-producer of The Rugrats Movie. She was also executive producer for Good Burger and Harriet, the Spy. Leigh Anne Brodsky has been named to the newly-created position Of SVP-consumer products. She had been SVP-marketing for the Golden Books Entertainment Group. Prior to that, she was VP-marketing at Broadway Video.

ODYSSEY: Robert D. Baxter has been named CFO. He was most recently VP-controller of the House of Blues organization. Prior to that, he was VP-CFO-gaming for Hollywood Park Inc. He has also been associated with Hemmeter Enterprises Inc. and Arthur Andersen LLP. Madeline DiNonno has joined the network as VP-marketing alliances. She has been with Universal Studios Home Video for the past 8 years where she was VP-strategic marketing. Prior to that, she held marketing and promotional positions with Lancome Cosmetics and ABC.

PEREGRINE COMMUNICATIONS: Robert M. Berkowitz has been named regional sales director. A 30-year veteran of the telecommunications, computer and commercial industries, he was mostly recently senior account executive for 3COM Corp. He has also held positions with Zenith Network Systems, Compressions Labs Inc., National Advanced Systems, Wang Laboratories Inc. and IBM Corp.

PIRELLI CABLES & SYSTEMS NORTH AMERICA: Kevin Riddett has been appointed president/CEO. He succeeds Walter Alessandrini who is leaving the company for another executive management position. Riddett has been executive VP of Pirelli since 1997.

SCTE: Paula M. Jones has been promoted to manager-membership services dept. She has been with the professional organization for 10 years and is a member of the American Society of Association Executives.

SSPI: The following have been inducted into the Society of Satellite Professionals International Hall of Fame: John A. Johnson, Takuro Muratani and John G. Puente. Johnson, now retired, was the first U.S. Representative to Intelsat and INMARSAT and served on numerous U.S. delegations to international conferences on satellite communications. Muratani, president/CEO of KDD R & D Laboratories played a key role in the development of the time division multiple access system and the satellite switched TDMA system. He served as Japan's representative to several international communications projects for the satellite industry. Puente, chairman of the board of Telogy Networks, has held key executive positions with American Satellite Corp., Digital Communications Corp., M/A-Com and SoutherNet. He was chairman/CEO of Orion Satellite Corp. for a decade.

SANDERS: Henry T. Berg has been named director-product management for the telecommunications systems business area. He is responsible for product development, production and after market support. He joined the company is 1978 as an electrical engineer and has over 20 years of management and engineering experience in various aspects of the industry.