Acorn Direct Names President

Thomas Sidar, president of National Wildlife Direct, joined Acorn Media Group as president of Acorn Direct.

He succeeds Miguel Penella, who was named CEO in April.

Acorn Direct -- which will account for about one-half of Acorn's $80 million in sales in 2007, according to the company -- markets DVDs of a host of British TV shows including Prime Suspect, Benny Hill, As Time Goes By, Upstairs Downstairs and hundreds of others.

Acorn will release 71 new titles in 2007 alone.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.