ALEXANDRIA, VA - September 5, 2000 - The PBS Sponsorship Group, public television's national underwriting sales force, has recently appointed Bill Parish its first director, national sponsorship sales. The announcement was made today by Peter Greene, executive director of the PBS Sponsorship Group.
In this newly created position, Mr. Parish will lead the national sales managers of the six Sponsorship Group partner-stations and further unify the efforts of the members as they offer powerful partnerships and excellent client service to national corporate sponsors.
"We are very pleased to have Bill join our growing team," commented Mr. Greene. "His tremendous experience in broadcast sales and sales management will help our hard-working staff to be even more effective."
Mr. Parish joins PBS from the staff of TV Guide, where he served as manager of program promotion sales, overseeing the sale of advertising on the cable version of the popular publication. In addition, Mr. Parish has held sales positions at Cox Broadcasting, Sel Tel, Group W Satellite Communications, Turner Broadcasting, Arts & Entertainment Network (A&E), USA Cable Network, Home Box Office (HBO) and NBC.
Since its establishment three years ago, the PBS Sponsorship Group has given some of public television's largest producing stations the opportunity to garner corporate underwriting through a strategic and united sales endeavor. As a result, the Sponsorship Group has generated more than 160 million dollars of corporate support, while offering improved, streamlined service to new and longtime underwriters.
The PBS Sponsorship Group portfolio includes such signature programs as THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, AMERICAN MASTERS, ARTHUR, FRONTLINE, NATURE, NOVA, TELETUBBIES, ZOBOOMAFOO and ZOOM. New programs, such as CAILLOU and CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG, debuting on PBS this fall, are also represented. These and other programs are available for sponsorship individually or in packages. The PBS Sponsorship Group also offers interactive sponsorships on PBS.org, PBS' award-winning network of more than 400 Web sites brimming with tv-related and web-original content.
The PBS Sponsorship Group, founded in 1997, is a one-stop, client-responsive gateway to national corporate sponsorship of PBS programs. Partners in the Sponsorship Group are KCET Hollywood, Maryland Public Television, WETA Washington, DC, WGBH Boston and WNET New York, WTTW Chicago and PBS.
- PBS -
Jan McNamara
PBS
703/739-5028