EarthX, Ramping Up Streaming And TV Effort, Fills Out Senior Exec Ranks With Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, Ride TV Vets

Dade Hayes
·3 min read
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EarthX, the Texas-based environmental group building out its presence in TV and streaming, has appointed six senior execs with experience from Discovery networks and Ride TV.

The appointments cover areas such as content, global distribution, marketing, production, finance, ad sales and impact.

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Michael Fletcher, who co-founded and ran Ride TV for a decade, was named Co-CEO of EarthX earlier this year. His charge is to bolster the media operation of the organization, whose expo, conference, film festival and other activities have translated to a significant streaming profile. In 2019, its annual April confab drew more than 177,000 attendees, 2,000 environmental leaders and 750-plus exhibitors. In 2020, the event was held virtually due to Covid and drew more than 570,000 live-stream views across 171 countries. Streaming service EarthxTV, which was initially found only via a website, is now a widely distributed app available via major gateways like Roku and Amazon Fire TV as well as many other distribution points. Distribution in linear TV and also as a 24/7 streaming app is expected soon.

“We have an ambitious plan to expand development and distribution of EarthxTV into a powerful global entertainment and educational network, and I’m thrilled to welcome a truly talented leadership team to help us achieve our goals,” Fletcher said.

Among the newly appointed execs is Dan Russell, EVP of Content and Strategy for EarthX, who will steer programming development and acquisitions for EarthxTV. His background includes stints as an exec with a range of Discovery networks and subsidiaries, including TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Velocity/MotorTrend and Discovery International. He also worked at Poker Central TV and CuriosityStream and was SVP of Content Development at New Dominion Pictures.

Rose Stark has been named SVP of Marketing for EarthX, overseeing marketing, social media, and communications for EarthX Expo, EarthxTV, and its annual EarthX Film Festival. Stark has worked on branding properties like Planet Green, Discovery Health, and TLC during a 15-year run at Discovery.

James Levitt is EVP of global ad sales for EarthX, focusing on EarthxTV. He led sales for Ride TV and ran his own advisory firm, Orama Advisors, leveraging his 30-plus years of experience spanning linear TV, streaming and digital. In addition to his tenure at Ride, Levitt was SVP of ad sales for Discovery Inc.

Other new hires include Mike Clark, EVP of global distribution, who will focus on expanding the availability of EarthxTV across digital and linear platforms globally. Before EarthX, Clark was at Ride TV, where he served on the board of directors and held executive posts including VP of operations, SVP of corporate development, and EVP international operations. Ride TV launched internationally including Taiwan, Dubai, Ecuador, and Canada.

The interim chief financial officer of EarthX is Bryan W. Redd, who is overseeing accounting, finance and information technology. He spent more than five years at Ride TV for over five years in various leadership roles including VP of strategy.

Tim Pirrello has been named SVP of production for EarthxTV, leading the network’s creative, production, and post-production departments. He held several roles at AMS Pictures during his 21 years at the company. AMS supplied hundreds of hours of programming to TV networks including Discovery, HGTV, A+E, History, Food, Cooking, Lifetime, Bio, Showtime, WGN, TruTV and Reelz.

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