• by Fern Siegel , October 30, 2009

The Oprah Winfrey Network, which saw former prez Robin Schwartz exit earlier this year, just named Allan Singer executive vice president of distribution and strategy for OWN.

Singer joins OWN from Comcast, where he served as senior vice president of content acquisition. Based in Los Angeles, he reports to Christina Norman, CEO.

OWN, a joint venture between Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications, is expected to launch in 70 million homes next year on what is now the Discovery Health Channel.

Norman stated that Singer would be "instrumental in creating and building our relationship with our affiliate partners."

Previously, Singer had been a six-year vet of Comcast, where he initially managed the net's portfolio, including the the acquisition of TechTV and the successful launches of TV One, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, Comcast SportsNet West, SNY and PBS Kids Sprout. Most recently, he oversaw programming for Comcast Cable.

He also held executive posts at AT&T Broadband and was president of Satellite Services, where he handled content acquisition and network carriage.