cronin

Rich CroninPresident and CEOGSN – The Network for Games
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 over 30 million subscribers, with GSN now in 60 million cable and satellite homes in the United States. He also has assisted in increasing annual ad sales revenues which have nearly doubled.
GSN now programs over 19 hours a day of interactive play-along programming, far and away the most in the industry. The company also has launched online skill games from GSN’s properties such as 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 a new 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.