GSN has named Jan Hatcher -- a veteran of Lifetime Television and Scripps Networks -- as its senior vice president of distribution, officials said Wednesday.
GSN -- owned by Liberty Media Corp. and Sony Pictures Entertainment -- has been without a head of affiliates relations for some time.
In April, the network decided that it needed to hire a full-time chief of distribution after having one executive -- Michael Sakin -- do ad sales and affiliate relations for six months. Sakin went back to the post of senior VP of ad sales, and GSN went on a search for an affiliate chief.
Hatcher was senior VP of national distribution for Lifetime in Los Angeles from 2001-03. Before that, she was at Scripps, where she initially helped to launch Home & Garden Television in 1994.
During her term at Scripps, Hatcher held a number of posts, including VP of the Western region, overseeing HGTV’s West Coast office and staff. She also served as VP of national accounts and, in that role, she was in charge of MSO negotiations and contracts for both Food Network and HGTV.
GSN president Rich Cronin said Hatcher was recommended by the network’s new senior VP of programming, Ian Valentine.
“He had worked with her on a couple of start-up projects,” Cronin said. “When I started to call around to people, she got rave reviews.”
Hatcher was also involved in start-up projects for Lifetime, such as Lifetime Movie Network and Lifetime Real Women. “We felt that she had the right background to take us to the next level,” Cronin said.
GSN is currently in 56.3 million homes.
