Kathy Dore, the veteran head of all of Rainbow Media Holdings Inc.’s movie-based networks, is leaving the company after more than 20 years to become president of television operations at Canada’s largest media venture, officials said Monday.
Dore has been named president of television and radio at CanWest MediaWorks, a newly created position. In her new role, she will be responsible for all MediaWorks Canadian broadcast-television operations, cable channels and radio stations.
Dore, who joined Rainbow in 1982, most recently was president of entertainment services, where she had operating responsibility for AMC, IFC Cos. and WE: Women’s Entertainment.
She is leaving Rainbow on the eve of the Cablevision Systems Corp. unit being spun off as a separate company with its own stock.
Last week, Cablevision said it was once again delaying the spinoff of what will be called Rainbow Media Enterprises, which will include AMC, The Independent Film Channel, WE, HD direct-broadcast satellite service Voom and Mag Rack. The spinoff has now been delayed until early in the fourth quarter.
During her tenure, Dore was responsible for the development and launch of IFC and IFC Entertainment, which distributed two of the top-grossing independent-film releases of all time, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Fahrenheit 9/11.
At CanWest, Dore’s responsibilities will include Global Television Network, one of two private TV networks in Canada, which owns TV stations in Canada’s major cities from coast to coast.
Her appointment is part of a realignment of the Canadian operations of CanWest Global Communications Corp.
“I am thrilled to be joining the CanWest MediaWorks team at such a significant time in the company’s history, and I look forward to building on its strong record of innovation and growth,” Dore said in a prepared statement. “At the same time, it is a bittersweet moment as I leave colleagues and friends at Rainbow with whom I’ve worked for 20 years.”
Rainbow declined to comment on who will replace Dore, but CEO Joshua Sapan issued a statement about her departure.
“Kathy Dore has been a valuable contributor to Rainbow Media over the past 22 years,” Sapan said. “She has been instrumental in creating some of the most popular networks on television and has helped to produce many of Rainbow Media’s successes. We will miss her and wish her the very best.”
Sapan continued, “We are also fortunate to have remarkably talented and creative executive teams in place at AMC, IFC and WE: Women’s Entertainment that will continue to build on Rainbow’s success as we move forward.”
