CME replaces chair, bolsters board

Central European Media Enterprises (CME) has appointed a former Time Warner Cable (TWC) exec to replace its outgoing chairman and bolstered its board with additions including Gerhard Zeiler.

John K Billock becomes non-exec chairman at the European broadcast giant, after Ronald S Lauder resigned from the position in March.

Lauder, who had held the position for 20 years, founded CME in 1994 with the launch of TV Nova in the Czech Republic, the country’s first commercial broadcaster.

Billock was vice chairman and chief operating officer at TWC from 2001 to 2005, and was more recently director at TiVo Research and Analytics until 2011. He also worked at HBO from 1978 to 2001, serving as president of the US Network Group from 1997.

CME has also added Zeiler, international president of Time Warner-owned Turner Broadcasting System to its board, along with Iris Knobloch and Doug Shapiro.

Knobloch has served as president of Warner Bros France since 2006 and was previously senior VP of international relations at Time Warner. Shapiro was named senior VP of international and corporate strategy at Time Warner in September 2013.

The appointments are the latest move by CME to revamp its operations after it suffered losses following an advertising slump across key markets. A deal was subsequently reached in February that saw the firm secure a US$545m credit agreement with major shareholder Time Warner, which helped to allay fears over the company’s future and saw its share price rise by over 60%.

CME operates channels across CEE including bTV in Bulgaria, Nova TV in Croatia and the Czech Republic, and Pro TV in Romania.