Cablevision Systems Corp.’s cable-division president, Tom Rutledge, is stepping up to become chief operating officer of the entire company.
Cablevision hasn’t had a COO since 1998. The move, in part, reflects company's move to become more of a pure cable operator,
Rutledge, previously president of cable and communications, will oversee Cablevision’s cable and telephone operations, plus a handful of programming properties that will remain behind when the cable operators spins off its larger Rainbow Media networks (AMC and WE) plus startup DBS service Voom later this year.
He’ll report to CEO James Dolan, whose father, Chairman Chuck Dolan, will exit Cablevision to run the Rainbow Media spinoff.
Before joining Cablevision in 2002, Rutledge had served as president of Time Warner Cable. It comes as no surprise, then, that Rutledge’s old post is being filled by John Bickham, formerly executive VP in charge of Time Warner Cable’s 2.4 million subscribers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.
