Discovery Networks International has named company veteran Omar Garcia as director, Eurosport U.S. advertising sales, charged with increasing partnerships and attracting U.S. advertisers to the international sports channel.
Discovery acquired a controlling interest in Eurosport in May. The network has six pay TV brands -- Eurosport, Eurosport HD, Eurosport 2, Eurosport 2 HD, Eurosport Asia-Pacific and Eurosportnews.
In the newly created position, Garcia will represent and sell Eurosport’s broadcast and digital assets to U.S.-based advertisers, and act as the U.S. liaison for Eurosport’s sales teams based in London and Paris. He will also continue his current responsibility to represent Discovery’s international ad sales out of the U.S. as well as integrated ad sales for the Latin America region. The appointment is immediate, and Garcia has relocated from Miami to Discovery’s ad sales hub in New York.
“Eurosport is Europe’s leading sports entertainment provider for live sports, both on-air and online, and we are excited to bring Omar to the Eurosport business to expand our ad sales partnership to maximize growth and creativity,” said Discovery Networks International chief operating officer and chief financial officer Doug Baker in a statement. “Omar’s extensive experience and deep relationships within the global ad sales community will spark new opportunities and creating more value for our current advertising clients while attract new partners to the business.”
A seven-year veteran of Discovery, Garcia most recently served as international account manager. In this role, he was responsible for pan-regional Latin American ad sales as well as international ad sales to U.S.-based clients with accounts out of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and countries across Latin America.
Prior to joining Discovery, Garcia spent three years with Sony Pictures Television International from 2003 where he worked as a global advertising sales manager and sales planner servicing Europe, Asia and Latin America. He began his career in advertising sales at Cisneros Television Group (Claxson Interactive), now a division of Turner Broadcasting Latin America, where he worked from 1999 to 2001.
