OpenTV uploads Brown

Marketing exec to help company compete

By MARC GRASER

Interactive TV service provider OpenTV has tapped Sharon H. Brown as chief marketing officer, a newly created post.

Brown will oversee all of OpenTV's corporate marketing and affiliate marketing decisions. Position adds muscle behind the Mountain View-based company, which will now be able to more aggressively compete against rivals WebTV, AOLTV, TiVo and ReplayTV.

She will report to OpenTV prexy and CEO Jan Steenkamp.

Most recently, Brown was executive veep of programming and strategic marketing for Liberty Digital. Before that, she was veep of TCI Music, veep of programming and strategic marketing for Intro TV, director of new business at Liberty Media and general manager at Cable AdNet.

"Sharon's extensive marketing experience in the cable and new-media industries provides OpenTV with a competitive advantage as we continue to grow our operating systems and applications business in the U.S. and worldwide," Steenkamp said.

Current distribs of OpenTV's interactive TV software and cable set-top boxes include EchoStar's Dish Network in the U.S., British Sky Broadcasting in the U.K., TPS and Noos in France, PrimaCom in Germany, Via Digital in Spain and Galaxy Latin America.

Investors in the company include America Online, Motorola, Liberty Digital, News Corp., Time Warner and Shaw Communications.