APTS’ John Lawson Joining ION Media Networks
Association of Public Television Stations President Named Executive VP, Policy and Strategic Initiatives
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/11/2008 11:23:00 AM EST
John Lawson, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, is joining ION Media Networks to head its lobbying shop in Washington, D.C.
Lawson will be executive vice president, policy and strategic initiatives, a newly created post.
He will be charged with pushing ION policy goals including on digital and mobile TV. ION CEO Brandon Burgess is president of the Open Mobile Video Coalition, a consortium of more than 800 local TV stations pushing hard for a mobile digital-TV standard. Lawson is a founding board member of the coalition and a member of its executive committee.
ION has been a big proponent of multicasting, using its stations' excess digital capacity to carry lifestyle programming networks. The company cited Lawson's 2005 negotiation of an extensive multicast-carriage deal with cable networks, as well as digital-carriage deals with DirecTV and Verizon Communications.
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