Time Warner Cable names new sports president
David Rone, a former agent at Creative Artists Agency and senior executive at Fox Sports and Walt Disney Co., is joining Time Warner Cable as president of sports.
The move further signifies Time Warner Cable’s desire to become a force in sports programming. This year, Time Warner Cable snagged the television rights to the Los Angeles Lakers away from Fox Sports and is using the team as the foundation to launch a regional sports network in Southern California.
But Rone’s background and stature in the media industry is too big for one channel. In its statement announcing the hire, Time Warner Cable said Rone will “work to build and foster relationships with sports leagues, conferences, teams, programming providers and others in the sports industry.”
Rone’s new boss, Time Warner Cable Executive Vice President Melinda Witmer, said in an interview Monday, “We really needed somebody to provide vision and leadership if Time Warner Cable is to raise the bar.”
Besides Los Angeles, Time Warner Cable also has systems in New York and several other major markets and has more than 12 million subscribers.
Rone most recently worked at Evolution Media Capital, a small media and sports investment bank that counts CAA as a partner. While there, he focused on valuation of sports rights packages, among other things. Before that, he was co-head of CAA Sports. He also was an executive vice president of Fox Sports.
