• by Wayne Friedman , September 25, 2008

Fox Networks Group has appointed Rich Battista as president of Fox National Cable Networks. Among other duties, he will be in charge of all Fox cable networks' advertising sales efforts.

Battista, a former Fox executive, will be running the cable networks including FX, National Geographic Channel, Fox Movie Channel, Fox Reality Channel, Fuel TV, Speed, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox College Sports, Fox Sports en Español, the Big Ten Network (co-venture with the Big Ten Conference), as well as Fox Cable Advertising Sales.

Most recently, Battista was chief executive officer of Gemstar-TV Guide International, which owned TV Guide from 2004 to 2008. Battista was instrumental in guiding the magazine's digital strategy, then selling Gemstar to Macrovision in May of this year.

Battista will report to Tony Vinciquerra, chairman/CEO of Fox Networks Group.

Before his Gemstar stint, Battista was executive vice president of business development and strategy of the Fox Entertainment Group. Since 1990, when he first joined Fox, he held numerous positions at Fox, including executive vice president of Fox Television. For two years--1999 to 2001--he left Fox briefly to become co-Founder/CEO of youth-targeted media company iFUSE.