• by Wayne Friedman , December 14, 2011

Mid-size news channel Current TV has made two senior-level marketing appointments.

Former NBC News executive Bill Hartnett is now executive vice president of marketing. He will oversee Current's marketing and brand strategy for all traditional and digital platforms, both on air and off air.

He will also oversee marketing efforts to support Current's advertising and affiliate sales teams.

Hartnett had been senior vice president of NBC News Marketing, which oversaw efforts on NBC News and MSNBC. Before that he was vice president at The NBC Agency, East Coast, where he managed all marketing and on-air promotion for "Today," "NBC Nightly News," "Dateline," "Meet the Press" and "The Chris Matthews Show."

Current TV is now in 70 million U.S. TV homes, with its most recent high-profile hire -- former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann -- appointed earlier this year, representing a key piece of the channel's growing prime-time lineup.

Current TV also named John Sollecito senior vice president of cross-platform research. Sollecito has had a number of senior media research positions, most recently at the AP. He also was vice president of digital media research at MTV Networks.

Joel Hyatt, chief executive officer and co-founder of Current, stated that the executives' expertise in TV and digital complement a team that is "reinventing the cable news genre."