Shawn Halford Named American Public Television's New VP Exchange Content and Digital Services
BOSTON, Sept. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- American Public Television (APT) announced today that Shawn Halford, an accomplished public television leader who has held key national content positions at PBS and Discovery Communications, has been named APT's Vice President of Exchange Content and Digital Services starting in October. Halford succeeds Chris Funkhouser, who is retiring after nearly 40 years in public media.
Currently PBS's Senior Director for Programming and Scheduling, Halford is known for his strategic leadership of content development and scheduling to drive consumer engagement. He was central to the team that boosted PBS' network primetime audience ranking from 12th to 6th place. At PBS for more than 20 years, he has been critical to the planning and execution of high-impact, multiplatform events, including the 2017 Ken Burns series The Vietnam War, reaching more than 39 million unique viewers on broadcast, and millions more via on demand platforms.
At APT, Halford will oversee a wide range of popular and high quality programming genres in the distributor's largest programming division. His portfolio will include television brands ranging from America's Test Kitchen and Rick Steves' Europe to Nightly Business Report and hundreds of award-winning documentaries. Halford will also be a key manager in the team distributing the national lifestyle channel Create and the non-fiction WORLD channel, two leading public media multicast services.
According to Cynthia Fenneman, APT president and CEO, Halford was selected from an extensive pool of highly qualified candidates. "Shawn brings a passion for content, public media and cable network experience, solid understanding of digital platforms, peer respect, stellar integrity, and strategic thinking skills – all central to APT's organizational direction now and in the future. He will be collaborating with producers worldwide and public TV stations to provide compelling, smart content."
Through his public media career, Halford has forged strong relationships with APT's station customer base. He managed the PBS Plus syndication service and has been steeped in cross-departmental collaborations with PBS digital teams on multiplatform content rollout.
About joining the senior team at APT, Halford said, "I have immense respect for the American Public Television team, and I am thrilled to join the APT ranks to help chart the course in a changing media landscape. I am drawn to both APT's storied legacy as the leading syndicator of high-quality, top-rated programming to the nation's public television stations, and the prospect of working with APT's award-winning and popular public media content."
Halford currently oversees strategic planning and scheduling of national PBS general audience and children's content across multiple channels and platforms. He was integrally involved with launching PBS' free video on demand. In addition, working with his colleagues, Halford's strategies increased cumulative audience, frequency, and time spent viewing for PBS news and public affairs content, the only TV network to do so for two consecutive years surrounding the 2016 election cycle. Halford was central to the launch team and scheduled the first PBS HD channel, multicast PBS Kids Channel and PBS You Channel in his early years at PBS.
Before joining PBS, Halford served in programming and network operations at Discovery Communications from 1993-1997. At Discovery Channel and TLC, Halford scheduled content, implemented new program clocks to better flow audience from program to program, and devised strategic promotions scheduling.
About American Public Television
American Public Television (APT) is the leading syndicator of high-quality, top-rated programming to the nation's more than 360 public television stations. Founded in 1961, APT distributes 250 new program titles per year and one-fourth of the top 100 highest-rated public television titles in the U.S. APT's diverse catalog includes prominent documentaries, performance, news and current affairs programs, dramas, how-to programs, children's series and classic movies. APT also licenses programs internationally through its APT Worldwide service and distributes Create®TV — featuring the best of public television's lifestyle programming — and WORLD™, public television's premier news, science and documentary channel. https://APTonline.org
CONTACT:
Jamie Haines, APR
APT VP of Communications,
[email protected]
617-338-4455 x 129
SOURCE American Public Television
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