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Current Media Appoints Ken Ripley Executive Vice President of Advertising Sales

Posted on: Tuesday, 18 August 2009, 08:00 CDT

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Current Media, the award-winning participatory media company, has selected Ken Ripley as Executive Vice President of Advertising Sales. Ripley, who will be based in the company's growing New York office, brings more than 20 years of traditional and new media advertising sales expertise to Current Media, including national cable, satellite, network, syndication, interactive television, VOD and in-game advertising platforms.

Ken Ripley's appointment comes at a time of rapid growth for Current Media, including the recent announcement of cable industry veteran Mark Rosenthal stepping in as CEO.

"I am delighted to bring in a talent like Ken Ripley to build upon the successful participatory advertising platform at Current Media," said Mark Rosenthal, CEO, Current Media. "Ken has been a pioneer in the industry and has a long history of developing innovative programs that are a win for both consumers and the advertisers looking to reach them."

In his new role, Ripley will capitalize on his cross-media experience to partner with top global brands and agencies to implement strategic initiatives developed to reach Current Media's coveted influencer demographic. In addition to expanding the company's successful Viewer Created Ad Message (VCAM) marketing partnership program, Ripley will develop the next generation of advertising products designed to empower consumers to promote brands with innovative peer-to-peer marketing tools and programs on Current Media and its content partners.

"Initiatives such as the VCAM program have made Current Media an undisputed leader in advertising innovation," said Ken Ripley, newly named Executive Vice President of Advertising Sales. "I'm thrilled that I have an opportunity to work with the senior leadership in developing new tools and further exposing the Current brand to an audience of brands hungry for original approaches."

Most recently, Ken Ripley was Executive Vice President of Global Advertising Sales for IGA Worldwide, Inc., a leading independent in-game advertising company. While at IGA, he oversaw a sales organization that worked with more than 100 companies to tailor messages specifically to in-game audiences.

Prior to his tenure at IGA, Ripley was Vice President, Sales Development for Discovery Communications where he built a new sales division, bringing in more than 40 new national TV advertising clients. Previously, he was national sales manager for Discovery's Emerging Network group including: Discovery HD Theater, Discovery Home, Discovery Times, The Science Channel, The Military Channel, Discovery Kids Channel and Discovery Kids on NBC.

Ripley has also served as Vice President Advertiser Sales for TiVo, Inc., where he launched TiVovision, interactive television's first marketing system for advertiser on-demand messaging and signed numerous charter advertisers. Before TiVo, Ripley was Vice President, Advertiser Sales for Columbia TriStar Television where he managed sales for DirecTV's and Game Show Network's ad sales efforts.

About Current Media

Current Media is an award-winning participatory media company dedicated to the in-depth investigation and exploration of the world's most important, interesting and entertaining stories. The youngest television network ever to win an Emmy Award(R), Current TV recently passed the 60 million cable and satellite television household mark in April 2009, and the successful launch and explosive growth of Current.com enjoys over 7 million unique visitors each month.

VCAM (Viewer Created Ad Message), Current Media's participatory marketing partnership program, has been a runaway success since its inception, with dozens of Fortune 500 companies joining Current Media's influencer community to create customized television commercials for the brands. Recent research revealed that consumers preferred the VCAM commercials 9:1 over traditional television advertising.

Current Media is now viewed in the U.S., U.K., Italy, and Ireland through distribution partners Comcast (Channel 107 nationwide), Time Warner (nationwide), DirecTV (channel 358 nationwide), Dish Network (channel 196 nationwide), Verizon, AT&T, BSkyB (channel 183), Virgin Media (channel 155) and Sky Italia (channel 130).

More information is available at http://www.current.com.

SOURCE Current Media

Source: PR Newswire

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