cronin presentation

GSN: The Strategy of Owning a Specific Cable Audience
With Rich Cronin



Date Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Time 05:00 PM to 09:00 PM
Agenda 5:00 - 6:00 Moderated Discussion on Strategy
6:00 - 6:30 Registration and Networking
6:30 - 7:30 Dinner
7:30 - 9:00 Speaker Presentation
9:00 Adjournment


Location The UCLA Faculty Center


About the Topic
Television game shows have enjoyed renewed popularity over the last few years. No one is more qualified to discuss this than our guest speaker, Rich Cronin of GSN.
GSN is the entertainment industry leader in multi-platform interactive game programs. As the premier television network for games, GSN features challenging word games, high intensity casino programs, live participation shows, reality series and documentaries. GSN's programming includes original series such as "Chain Reaction," “Lingo" and "High Stakes Poker" as well as the classics "Jeopardy" and "Pyramid" among others. The network also boasts America's first live participation TV program "PlayMania" which airs on late-night six times a week.

Complementing the network, GSN.com features all types of game play: innovative Flash games for fun, skill cash game tournaments and downloadable games. The website also features GSN's two-screen interactive play-along for prime time shows. Now reaching more than 62 million Nielsen homes, GSN is distributed in the U.S. through all major cable systems and satellite providers. The network is jointly owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media Corporation.

Mr. Cronin will address strategies and the importance of:

Interactive game shows, allowing at home viewers to participate in games.
The internet as a means of bringing interaction to the television media; perhaps touching on the dual ability for advertising online and on TV.
Product placement in gameshows during a time when DVRS allow viewers to forward through commercials which advertisers have paid large dollar amounts to place. Increased visibility during a time when there are a lot of choices to grab viewers' attention.
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About the Speakers
Rich Cronin
President & CEO, GSN

Named President and Chief Executive Officer of GSN, the network for games, in April 2001, Rich Cronin has utilized his pioneering cable television experience to help transform GSN into the preeminent destination for interactive games and game-related programming.
Since taking over the helm at the Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media Corporation company, Cronin’s accomplishments have resulted in significant gains and innovations. Cronin has increased the network’s distribution by more than 30 million subscribers, with GSN now in 61 million cable and satellite homes in the United States. He also assisted in increasing annual ad sales revenues, which have nearly doubled.

GSN now programs more than 19 hours a day of interactive play-along programming, far and away the most in the industry. The company also launched online skill games from GSN’s properties such as the original hit TV game show LINGO.

In programming, Cronin remains a vital force behind GSN’s expansion from traditional game shows to a variety of competition-related genres. He has been responsible for steering the company into documentaries, reality series, casino games and specials. He also was integral to the company’s successful marketing efforts rebranding from Game Show Network to GSN, the network for games, in March 2004.

Cronin has spearheaded efforts behind the company’s new service, GSNi, which launched in April 2005. GSNi is an interactive product that offers subscribers the ability to play along with GSN’s programming in real time using their TV remote control.

Prior to taking control of GSN, Cronin served as President and CEO of Fox Family Channel and Fox Kids Network, beginning in 1998. While there, Cronin grew its cable distribution and launched new family programming that included top-rated original movies. During Cronin’s tenure, the value of Fox Family Worldwide nearly tripled, eventually yielding a sale of its assets to ABC/Disney in 2001.

Cronin spent nearly 14 years, from 1984 through 1997, at Viacom’s highly successful cable networks, including 5 years as head of marketing for Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite. While in this position he played an integral part in growing the then small children’s network into a powerful global brand and dominant force in family television. His accomplishments were rewarded with a promotion to Senior Vice President and General Manager of Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon’s nightly home of Classic TV. Building Nick at Nite into a formidable franchise, Cronin then founded and became the first President of TV Land, one of the most successful cable/satellite networks launched in the 1990’s.

Cronin, who graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1976 while working at the local NBC station in the news department, moved to Los Angeles and held a variety of positions in TV and film production while earning his MFA from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema and Television. He began his career in cable television in 1982 at the operator-owned premium movie channel Spotlight before accepting a position as an affiliate sales executive with MTV Networks in 1984.

Cronin is on the board of CTAM, the cable industry’s premiere marketing organization, is Chairman of the Paulist Productions Board, and is an active member of the World Presidents Organization (WPO). He and his wife and four children live in Los Angeles.