Harvey Takes Helm As Fuse GM

Gavin Harvey

Gavin Harvey, the former head of Comcast's Versus sports network, will take over the top post at Cablevision's Fuse channel. As executive vice president and general manager, Harvey will oversee programming, sales and the other day-to-day operations of the youth-oriented music channel.

At Versus, Harvey oversaw its transition from Outdoor Life Network to OLN to Versus, as it tilted more toward a traditional sports network, adding hockey, college football and the Tour de France as programming. He left the network as president last year as Comcast relocated its executive team.

Fuse is part of Cablevision's Madison Square Garden unit, which is being spun off. The network had been part of the company's Rainbow Media group, but was transitioned to MSG Media partly to capitalize on synergies with the musical acts at the Garden. The network offers original series, live concerts and music videos.

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Fuse targets adults 18 to 34. Prime-time ratings by one measure were up 31% last season, but still averaged only 17,000 viewers in the demo -- although the network was in 64 million homes.

Harvey will report to Michael Bair, president of MSG Media, who said Harvey's "leadership skills and impressive branding experience" will benefit the network as it moves to "further build upon [its] integration strategy with Madison Square Garden's assets."

Prior to the OLN-Versus migration, Harvey had branding experience in a chief marketer role at E! Networks; he was executive vice president and marketing and brand director.

Harvey said the Fuse position "offers tremendous opportunities to utilize my television experience and interest in music."

Harvey has also worked at the Disney Channel, In Demand and FX. He joined Versus in 2004. Fuse had been led by former VH1 Classic executive Eric Sherman, who left the president's role at the end of last year.

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