Viacom Forms Acquisitions Unit Under Bernath, Zaneri

NEW YORK: David Bernath and Barbara Zaneri have been tapped to lead a newly formed unit at Viacom to coordinate all program acquisitions for the company's U.S. networks, including Comedy Central, MTV, Spike TV and Nickelodeon.

The Program Acquisitions Group will manage planning and analysis, inventory management, the acquisition process and buying activities for BET, Centric, MTV, VH1, CMT, Comedy Central, Spike TV, TV Land, Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite in the U.S. Program acquisitions executives at each of the individual networks will continue to lead the selection of acquisitions for their respective channels. The unit will be jointly led by David Bernath, executive VP of programming and multiplatform strategy for Comedy Central, and Barbara Zaneri, who will assume the newly created role of executive VP of program acquisitions. Zaneri was most recently executive VP of program strategy, acquisitions and scheduling for BET Networks.

Zaneri is tasked with negotiations for all domestic program acquisitions within Viacom Media Networks, working with acquisitions execs at the respective channels, as well as U.S. multichannel program acquisitions. She reports directly to Rich Eigendorff, COO of Viacom Media Networks. The coordination of all of Viacom's U.S. program acquisitions activity will be under Bernath's remit. He will continue to report to Michele Ganeless, president of Comedy Central, and will report to Eigendorff in his Program Acquisitions Group role.

"Synchronizing our program buying activities across the Viacom portfolio will afford us the opportunity to further integrate our businesses and forge innovative partnerships," said Eigendorff. "With Barbara and Dave's creative approaches to seeking and securing off-net rights, we will continue to strengthen our robust mix of original programming with acquisitions and maximize value for our brands and our audiences."