Viewer's choice is Harvey

Exec named senior VP

By JOHN DEMPSEY

NEW YORK -- Viewer's Choice, the dominant pay-per-view distributor in the U.S., has named Gavin Harvey to the new post of senior VP of marketing and brand director, hoping he can turn a relatively unknown company into a household name.

"An executive with Gavin Harvey's level of expertise has never ended up as a part of the pay-per-view industry," said Mindy Herman, prexy and CEO of Viewer's Choice. Harvey, who moves from Los Angeles to join VC in New York on June 12, has resigned as senior VP of marketing and promotion for FX Networks. Before that, Harvey was an executive with E! Entertainment TV.

Herman said that many cable systems impose their own name for the PPV channels they pick up from VC, limiting brand exposure for Viewer's Choice. For example, the largest cable system in the U.S., Time Warner's 1.1 million-subscriber New York City operation, calls its PPV package Time Warner Home Theater (Time Warner is one of the owners of VC). Similarly, Century's cable system in Los Angeles packages its PPV offerings under the name Century Select.