Woodie Named Head of MundoFox Ad Rep

Organization will sell national spot for new net's affiliates

By Jon Lafayette -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/27/2012 2:16:53 PM

Fox Networks Group has hired multicultural ad sales veteran Phillip Woodie to run the new rep firm that will sell national ads for affiliates of MundoFox, the new Hispanic network launching next month.

Woodie, who was named senior VP of MundoFox national spot sales, has previously been VP of multicultural sales at Comcast Spotlight, president of network sales and marketing at Azteca America and has worked for Univision, Disney and Cox.

Tom Maney, senior VP of advertising sales at Fox Hispanic Media, says he's known Woodie for a dozen years. "I'm really excited to add such a seasoned media executive to our roster and get started," he says.

The rep operation, as yet unnamed, will represent 35 of the 50 MundoFox affiliates for national spot sales.

The rep will launch with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Miami and have 17 people in place by September. "We're hiring sales people, support people, research. It will be a dedicated group to represent our affiliates with their national spot sales," Maney said.

So far, six people have been hired and there are offers out to three more.

Longer term, Maney expects the rep firm to have five regional offices and 30 people three to five years from now.

The rep firm is also setting up its tech infrastructure to be user-friendly for both buyers and sellers. "I don't want my sales people spending hours putting avails together. I want them out making meaningful sales calls," Maney says. "Everything we're trying to do is about what will we be selling tomorrow."

Maney says MundoFox has already gotten a warm reception in the marketplace, both on a national level during the upfront and in local markets. "We're already getting avail requests from people who are out in the agency community," he says.