Viamedia Appoints Leading Media Industry Entrepreneur Mark Lieberman as President & Chief Executive Officer

LEXINGTON, Ky., Jan. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Viamedia, the television industry's leading independent provider of outsourced local television advertising services on behalf of cable companies, today announced the appointment of Mark Lieberman as its new President & Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. Lieberman, who will be based in Viamedia's New York City offices, will lead Viamedia's operations in 31 states across the country.  Jeff Carter, co-founder and former President and CEO, will continue with the company in an advisory role as the Vice Chairman of Viamedia's Board of Directors. 

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"Viamedia is ideally positioned to transform the world of TV advertising going through sweeping consumer behavioral changes," said Lieberman, the President & Chief Executive Officer of Viamedia.  "What excites me about Viamedia is its 300 person local sales team with unrivaled relationships with local advertisers.  Coming from the world of smart big data, I know that well-connected people are the key competitive advantage as the company rolls out new innovative solutions like our programmatic buying platform, placemedia.   I look forward to leading the Viamedia team and working with its majority shareholder, Lake Capital, to build upon an already strong core business and take the company to the next level."

"We've built Viamedia into a powerhouse with hard to replicate, local sales capabilities and technology grounded with personal, locally based reach," said Jeff Carter, Vice Chairman and co-founder of Viamedia.  "Mark exemplifies the leadership our 48 MVPD partners, 10,000 advertisers and their customers have come to expect from this organization. Under Mark's leadership, I am confident that Viamedia's legacy service-minded excellence will excel to even greater heights."

"With the capabilities that Viamedia can deliver on behalf of MVPDs and advertisers, the company is poised for new levels of success," said Terence Graunke, Chairman, Principal and co-founder of Lake Capital, Viamedia's private equity sponsor.  "We are thrilled to have a pioneer of Mark's ability and stature leading Viamedia.  He brings a unique track record of success in both traditional media and in newer, technology based, analytically intensive, targeting media, which align perfectly with the demands of the market."

Carl Vogel, an advisor to Lake Capital and Viamedia, added, "As an active participant in the cable and satellite industry for many years, I've watched technology transform video advertising across multiple screens.  A proven leader, Mark has the perfect mix of advertising, big data and digital experience, paired with transformational skills necessary to lead Viamedia in a charge that will lead an entire industry."

Lieberman has been an entrepreneur in the media and technology industry for more than two decades, leading traditional media businesses and founding several transformational companies in the media industry. He was the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of TRA, a leading television big data analytics, software, and research technology firm, which was recently acquired by TiVo and renamed TiVo Research & Analytics.  Lieberman held positions as Chairman and CEO of Interactive Video Technologies (IVT), an online video publishing company; President of About.com Ventures, a leading Internet portal; and Executive Vice President of Reed Elsevier Business Information where he ran a $250 million business that included Variety, Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News. In the mid-90's, Lieberman founded Sarnoff Real Time Corp., a video server company that became DIVA systems, the first commercially viable video-on-demand provider to the cable industry. Lieberman also served in the first Bush Administration as Associate Deputy Secretary and Assistant Secretary for Technology (Acting) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Lieberman is currently the non-Executive Chairman of Rightster Group plc, an online video syndication company, and on the Advisory Board of Adfin, Inc., which provides pricing transparency and real-time insights for the programmatic advertising ecosystem.

Lieberman's appointment comes on the heels of a momentous 2013 year for Viamedia: CableFAX's Tech cable company of the year; Viamedia expanded operations into 57 total DMA's; and signed deals with 12 new MVPD partners. Viamedia created a new turn-key solution for small-medium sized MVPDs to provide local advertising sales for systems delivering as few as 1,500 television households with Viamedia GO. At Ad Week, Viamedia launched placemedia, the only fully-automated, self-service portal for national television advertisers.   For more information on Viamedia visit www.viamediatv.com. For more information on placemedia visit www.placemedia.com.

ABOUT VIAMEDIA

Headquartered in Lexington, KY, Viamedia is a leading provider of outsourced local advertising sales services. The company specializes in selling DMA-based advertising to local, regional and national advertisers on behalf of U.S. cable and telecommunications service providers, utility companies and municipalities. For more information on Viamedia, visit www.viamediatv.com.

ABOUT PLACEMEDIA

Based in Salt Lake City, placemedia is a fully-automated television advertising exchange that is solving the problem of audience fragmentation on linear television. Placemedia applies micro-targeting technology and metrics to help maximize available impressions and increase incremental revenue for media buyers by targeting specific audiences across broadcast, cable, satellite and digital networks.

ABOUT LAKE CAPITAL

Lake Capital is a private equity firm that focuses on investments in service-based enterprises. The firm currently manages more than $1 billion in equity commitments and seeks to build leading services companies through organic and acquisition-enhanced growth. More information about Lake Capital is available at www.lakecapital.com.

SOURCE Viamedia