• by Wayne Friedman , December 7, 2009

Looking for more Hollywood patina, Discovery Communications has named former Fox senior executive Peter Liguori as its new chief operating officer.

Liguori, who was chairman of entertainment of Fox Broadcasting Co. until early this year, will start in his new post on Jan. 19, 2010. He'll report to Discovery Communications' president/CEO David Zaslav. Liguori will replace Mark Hollinger, who is now president/CEO of Discovery Networks International.

Among his varied operational responsibilities, Liguori will also be the lead executive for two key Discovery network startups: the Discovery-Hasbro kids channel venture, and the Discovery-Oprah Winfrey venture, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.

Plus, the company says Liguori will head up Discovery U.S.'s "content committee," which hopes to find extra marketing value across all its programming assets.

Much of Liguori's other efforts will be to bridge more of Discovery with the Hollywood community.

Zaslav stated: "He brings to Discovery managerial depth and extensive relationships with the creative community that will be major assets as we continue to build our existing brands, launch new services and create additional opportunities for growth."

Liguori ran entertainment for the News Corp's Fox Broadcasting Company from 2005 until March 2009. Fox has been the broadcast network leader among 18-49 viewers for the past five seasons.

Before becoming chairman of entertainment, he held the title of president of entertainment for Fox Broadcasting Company. Liguori was responsible for all Fox program development and marketing during his time at Fox.

For seven years before that, he was president/CEO FX Networks, which included FX and Fox Movie Channel. He came to Fox/Liberty Networks in 1996 as a senior vice president of marketing, which included Fox Sports Net, FX, Fox Sports World, SPEED and the National Geographic Channel. Prior to Fox, he was vice president of consumer marketing at HBO.