Warner Bros. International Television Distribution Continues Expansion of Branded Services Division, Naming Greg Drebin Senior Vice President, Programming and Marketing

Continuing the expansion of its Branded Services Unit – formed in April 2008 and dedicated to the launch of Warner Bros.-branded, advertiser-supported (AVOD), subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and linear channels around the world under the Warner TV banner – Warner Bros. International Television Distribution (WBITD) has named Greg Drebin to the newly created position of Senior Vice President, Branded Services-Programming and Marketing, it was announced today by Jeffrey R. Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros. International Television.

In his new role, Drebin will serve as the division’s senior creative executive, supervising the branding, programming and marketing of the Warner TV linear channels, SVOD zones and AVOD destinations that WBITD is launching around the world. Working with the regional sales and marketing executives, Drebin will help establish the brand positioning, the creative look and feel, and grow consumer awareness, usage and demand for the Branded Services. He comes to WBITD with nearly 20 years of domestic and international experience in both programming and production at leading cable and broadcast networks. Drebin will work closely with Malcolm Dudley-Smith, WBITD’s Executive Vice President, Branded Services-Business Management, who leads WBITD’s team in designing the rollout strategy for additional channels and branded services, and who oversees the affiliation/carriage deals with platforms and media/advertiser sales for the ad-supported services, as well as the strategic planning for the operation.

Based at WBITD’s headquarters in Burbank, Calif., Drebin will report to Schlesinger and will develop creative with Lisa Gregorian, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Warner Bros. Television Group.

“The addition of Greg to our senior management team is another indication of our commitment and support of this initiative,”said Schlesinger. “This underlines the importance of this new business to our company, and we look forward to Greg’s immediate contribution as we continue the global rollout of the Warner TV branded services.”

To date, WBITD has launched Warner TV VOD channels with Top Up TV, Tiscali, Virgin Media and BT in the U.K., FASTWEB in Italy, ProSieben in Germany, USEN Corporation’s GyaO in Japan, and Free TV in France, with an additional service planned for later in 2008 in India. The Warner TV channels build upon the successful linear Warner Channel that has been operating in Latin America for over 10 years.

Drebin comes to WBITD from Universal Music Group, where he served since February 2006 as Executive Vice President, Programming and Production, for IMF: The International Music Feed, Universal’s 24-hour all-music global television network. Prior to IMF, he was Senior Vice President, Program Development, at Infinity Broadcasting.

He was previously the founding head of programming and production at ZDTV/TechTV, where he oversaw all aspects of the launch of the network, including brand conception, studio and set design, as well as all programming, talent, scheduling, acquisitions and production. During his five years with TechTV, Drebin helped expand the network’s distribution into nearly 40 million homes. He has been recognized as one of the leading developers and producers of live interactive television, having created the widely acclaimed Netcam Network, which allowed viewers to appear and interact with the network, live on-air, over the Internet.

Prior to joining TechTV, Drebin spent 10 years with MTV, rising to Senior Vice President, Programming and Production, after having worked in promotions, publicity, scheduling, acquisitions and studio production at the network. He started his entertainment career at NBC Television, as a page at 30 Rockefeller Center.

About Warner Bros. International Television Distribution
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution is one of the world’s largest distributors of feature films, television programs and animation to the international television marketplace (broadcast, pay cable, basic cable, satellite, pay-per-view, video-on-demand, digital platforms, etc.). It licenses some 50,000 hours of programming (including more than 6,000 ?features and 70+ current series), dubbed or subtitled in more than 40 ?languages, to telecasters and cablecasters in more than 175 countries.