• by David Goetzl , January 14, 2008

Mike Alvarez, who headed the group at Lifetime that handled sales for its Web properties and brand integration deals, has taken a senior position at sports and entertainment producer Intersport.

As senior vice president, Alvarez will look to build the New York office of the Chicago-based company and oversee sales for established properties, such as CelebTV.com and sports specials and series airing on a range of networks.

He will work with marketers to co-develop content and then search for a distributor, be it traditional networks or broadband or mobile platforms.

Alvarez spent five years at Lifetime, and rose to vice president of the Partnerships group. His temporary replacement is Lifetime veteran Kevin Moran. The network is searching for a new head of sales in the wake of the departure of Lynn Picard. Running sales now are Rick Basso and John Matluck.

Each fall, Intersport produces a series on the Liberty Mutual college football coach of the year. It also co-produced a series on high-school sports rivalries for the Versus network last fall and put together a Final Four special last spring with famed announcer Dick Vitale that was sponsored by Goodyear.

Although it develops programming for a mobile channel on Sprint with sports commentary, lately, Intersport has been looking to move beyond sports and further into entertainment programming.

To that end, last April it launched CelebTV.com, which provides on-demand entertainment news on various outlets, from its own Web site to a YouTube director's channel to Sprint mobile. Geico was a charter sponsor.

"I'm excited about the entrepreneurial aspect of Intersport and the opportunity to help grow it," Alvarez said.

During his last three years at Lifetime, he oversaw all sales beyond traditional on-air spots. The areas under his leadership ranged from brand integration and product placement deals to ads on Web sites MyLifetime.com and the Lifetime Movie Network destination. A Lifetime representative said he "made enormous contributions to the success of the company."

Notable brand integration initiatives included a recent deal with Keri skin care, linking it with the new reality series "How to Look Good Naked" with Carson Kressley, and PerfectMatch.com with comedy "Lovespring International."

Before Lifetime, Alvarez spent two years in sales at iwon.com and seven at ESPN--five on the network side and two for ESPN.com. He said his background spanning sports, entertainment and online has prepped him for the Intersport post. "This leverages everything I've done in the past."