Television
July 5, 2000
Eric Frankel Named President, Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution
(July 5, 2000 – Burbank, CA) – Eric Frankel has been named President, Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution, a position which becomes effective January 2001, it was announced today by Bruce Rosenblum, Executive Vice President, Television, Warner Bros.
Frankel, who has been with Warner Bros. for twenty years, has served as Executive Vice President, Marketing, Warner Bros. Domestic Pay-TV, Cable & Network Features Distribution since 1994. In his new post, he will assume responsibility for the sales, marketing and distribution of Warner Bros. already-produced feature films, television series, miniseries, television movies and specials to the pay television and basic cable markets, as well as feature films to the broadcast networks.
Frankel will take the helm of the division following the previously announced retirement of Edward Bleier, President, Warner Bros. Domestic Pay-TV, Cable & Network Features, who, after 31 years with the company, will assume a New York-based consultancy for the Studio. Frankel and his staff will move from New York to the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank in September.
“Eric is both a savvy businessman and a creative executive,” said Rosenblum. “As the business of television changes, and split broadcast and cable windows for original network programming as well as off-network syndication become the rule rather than the rarity, we are fortunate to have Eric leading our charge. Eric has always been one step ahead of the pack and I look forward to working with him in the years ahead.”
“Eric’s college resume spotlighted a very hard worker and a very quick learner,” said Bleier. “Our collaboration over his entire professional career has been immensely productive, creating a division that earned annual compounded sales growth in double digits – often twice the comparable sales of competitors. Eric’s highly developed abilities, business knowledge, creative marketing and inventory management will continue our successful maximization of the industry’s number-one program resource.”
Throughout his career, Frankel has engineered many innovative and groundbreaking projects. In addition to marketing already-produced product, he also initiated and marketed such pay-per-view events as the Mancini vs. Camacho Middleweight Championship fight, and the concerts “James Brown Living in America” and “Matchbox 20 Live from Australia” for the company. For 15 years, he was part of the Warner Bros. classic animation team that distributed three Looney Tunes TV movies and 22 primetime specials. His sales deals include selling the off-CBS series “How’d They Do That?” to The Learning Channel, which in turn, ordered 44 original episodes of the series; selling the off-syndication run of “Babylon 5” to TNT, which then ordered an additional 22 original episodes and four two-hour made-for-television movies; and selling the 60-second interstitial vignettes “Monkey’d Minutes” to TBS, which, in turn, ordered a 13-episode half-hour series based on the vignettes called “The Chimp Channel.”
Among the recent off-network concurrent cable/broadcast deals in which Frankel has been involved are selling the cable component for “ER” to TNT, “Will & Grace” and “Suddenly Susan” to Lifetime, and “The Green Mile” and “Any Given Sunday” to FX.
In addition to already-produced product, Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution also distributes several original weekly series, including “Hard Rock Live” (VH-1), “Russell Simmons’ Oneworld Music Beat” (syndication) and “Sessions at West 54th” (PBS).
Over the past 20 years, Frankel has also supervised the pay-per-view marketing of hundreds of theatrical features.
Frankel joined Warner Bros. in 1980 as Supervisor, Advertising and Publicity, Warner Bros. Television, East Coast and worked his way up through the executive ranks to his current post.
Frankel holds a B.S. degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. # # #