• by Wayne Friedman , July 15, 2009

Comcast Programming Group has hired veteran media sales executive Ron Furman to head up advertising sales for its sports networks group.

Furman will be senior vice president of Comcast Sports Sales, overseeing advertising sales efforts for Versus and the Golf Channel. He'll be responsible for selling key sports franchises, including the National Hockey League, IndyCar Series, NCAA football and Tour de France on Versus, and PGA, LPGA, Nationwide, Champions and European Tours on the Golf Channel.

He'll report to David Cassaro, president of advertising sales for Comcast Networks.

Furman comes from a three-year stint as senior vice president of customer marketing and sales for the National Football League, working on ad deals across NFL Network, NFL.com and NFL Films. One of his key efforts was signing new sponsors for the NFL Network's eight-game regular season package, which began in 2006.

Before the NFL, he was senior vice president of advertising sales at MTV Network. Previous to MTV, he had a seven-year run as executive vice president of sales and marketing for Univision, where he sold sponsorships, including major deals in the network's World Cup telecast.

Furman also sent 12 years at ABC, working on key sports properties: PGA Tour, United States Golf Association, NCAA and Tour de France.