CHICAGO: Tribune Broadcasting announced this week that veteran media executive Bob Cook will serve as a strategic advisor, reporting to the division’s CEO and President, Nils Larsen. Cook will work with the division’s management team in a variety of areas, including strengthening and expanding its sales efforts, developing and distributing original programming, and generally advancing the company’s businesses.
Through his advisory company MBN Inc., Cook works with top-tier entertainment companies to help market to and acquire content for broadcast and cable networks, local TV stations, emerging digital channels, and advertising agencies. Before establishing MBN, Cook was president of Twentieth Television, the syndication sales/production arm for News Corp.’s broadcast and cable operations at Fox Television. For nearly a decade under his leadership, Twentieth Television sales and profits that were the highest in its history, exceeding $1 billion in annual sales.
During his career Cook has launched or spearheaded sales and marketing efforts of approximately 140 television programs comprised of first-run syndication, network, off-network syndication and motion pictures, as well as TV programs including “Family Guy,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Married With Children,” “The Practice,” “Hollywood Squares,” “COPS,” “America’s Most Wanted,” “King of the Hill,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy,” and the three most successful off-net series in syndication history: “Seinfeld,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and “The Simpsons.”
Throughout his 35-year career, Cook has won numerous awards for his work; he was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame in October, 2008.
