Gemstar Makes Three New Executive Appointments at TV Guide Channel

--Two of the New Hires have Backgrounds in Interactive TV

Gemstar-TV Guide has made three new executive appointments at its TV Guide Channel: the new appointments come in the wake of the company's appointment last August of interactive TV industry veteran, Ryan O'Hara, as the channel's president. Matt Singerman has been named SVP of programming and production; and two people with significant interactive TV experience--Kristin Peace and Dmitri Ponomarev--have been named VP of development and VP of on demand respectively. All three will be based at the channel's Los Angeles headquarters: Singerman and Ponomarev will report to O'Hara, while Peace will report to Singerman. According to Gemstar, the appointments should be seen in the context of its ongoing strategy of increasing the amount of original programming on the channel--a strategy which the company says has resulted in ratings increases of up to 25% in key demographics (especially among 18-34 year olds) this year.

Singerman--whose duties will include overseeing all aspects of TV Guide Channel's programming and production, including current series and specials, content development and talent--takes over from Danila Koverman, who the company says joined the channel to see it through its initial re-launch phase, which began in January, 2004 (Koverman's achievements include hiring Joan and Melissa Rivers to lead the channel's red carpet coverage of the Emmys, the Golden Globes and the Oscars). He was most recently executive producer of the Fox News Channel's morning show, "Fox & Friends," and of its spin-offs, "Fox & Friends First" and "Fox & Friends Weekend." Prior to that, he was a producer for special projects at the channel, including its 2000 New Year's Eve special, its magazine show, "Fox Files," and its late-night talk show, "The Full Nelson." Prior to joining Fox News in 1999, he served as a producer of King World's syndicated magazine show, "American Journal," from 1996 to 1998. Prior to that, he was a producer of the Fox Syndication show, "A Current Affair." He holds a liberal arts degree cum laude from Tufts University.

Peace--who will be responsible for developing original programming for the channel--has, since 2001, served as VP of programming and development at Paramount Domestic Television, responsible for all development of first-run syndication, network and cable projects. Among other things, she created, developed and launched that company's syndicated shows, "Dance 360" and "Life Moments." Prior to that, she worked at Game Show Network (which has since been rebranded as GSN), joining that company in 1998 as director of programming, and being promoted to VP of programming in 2000. According to Gemstar, she developed the channel's original programming slate, including all development and production of original programming and interactive TV. She holds a BA from Princeton.

Ponomarev--who will lead content development and production for TV Guide's VOD businesses, including TV Guide SPOT--was previously general manager for interactive platforms at interactive horseracing channel, TVG Network (of which O'Hara was president before joining TV Guide Channel). He was in charge of the development, daily operations and marketing of its wagering platforms, including the ITV wagering platform that launched on EchoStar's DISH satellite-TV service earlier this year. Prior to that, he was director of business development and strategic planning at Gemstar, responsible for business and operational planning and strategic development of its cable and satellite businesses. Prior to that, he was director of product development at Commerce-TV. He holds a BA in economics from UCLA and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

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