Arough takes top post at Entertainment Studios

Janice Arouh has been named president of domestic distribution and marketing at Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios, the company announced today (Tuesday, April 27).

“Janice brings energy and passion for the business to Entertainment Studios Networks. Her leadership, management depth, and extensive trusting relationships with the distributor community will be major assets as we embark on expanding the presence of our HD networks and create additional opportunities for growth, including launching compelling 3D networks,” said Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Entertainment Studios, in a statement.

Arouh, currently EVP of affiliate sales and marketing at the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel, joins the company on May 10. She will oversee all facets of domestic distribution and marketing for Entertainment Studios six 24-hour HD television networks: Pets.TV, Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV, Cars.TV, ES.TV, and MyDestination.TV, all of which air on Verizon’s FiOS broadband systems.

While at Hallmark, Arouh helped grow Hallmark Channel’s distribution to nearly 90 million subscribers. She supervised Hallmark Movie Channel’s HD launch, and that network has grown to 35 million homes since its April 2008 launch, and is projected to be in 40 million homes by the end of this year. She also helped launch Hallmark Channel’s HD network on Feb. 1, 2010.

Prior to joining Hallmark Channel in 2004, Arouh was SVP of affiliate marketing at Fox Cable Networks. She worked at News Corp.’s cable division for ten years.

Arouh has won several awards throughout her career, including CTAM and Promax/BDA awards for affiliate marketing in 2003. In 2005, she was awards the Women in Cable Television’s (WICT) Southern California Lifetime Achievement Award, and she was inducted into Multichannel News’ 2008 class of wonder women.

She’s also been active in the industry, serving as the treasurer for WICT’s board of directors, and board member of Southern California Cable Positive and of the Southern California Cable and Telecommunications Association.

Finally, she stays busy with philanthropic efforts, volunteering for the California Wildlife Center in Malibu and working with the Lupus LA association. Last year, she was awarded the Lupus LA Woman of Achievement.

Arouh earned her BA in communications from John Carroll University, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Bert, and their two children.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.