5Qs for Robert Broussard, President, Rainbow Network Sales

You were just elevated to president from evp. Any strategic changes in the works? Rainbow has been a content and cable industry leader for some time, so luckily we have a great network sales team already in place. What are your biggest challenges? We are committed to creating original programming that is designed for each specific medium. Whether it be originals like AMC’s record-breaking "Broken Trail," WE’s "Bridezillas," fuse’s "Pants Off, Dance Off" or creating the largest suite of HD channels in the world with VOOM HD Networks, we want to continue our investment in developing valuable programming that fills a void within the cable landscape. What are your biggest opportunities? I think it is obvious that there is tremendous potential in broadband distribution and, in the coming months, you will be seeing new broadband packages from Rainbow. But our fundamental belief is that broadband content distribution does not need to be a challenge to our cable partners. We have seen others simply put their original content on rival broadband portals. We would like to change that paradigm. How do technologies like on-demand factor into Rainbow’s future? We believe that On Demand is not a place to simply recycle linear content. Rather, we should strive to actually maximize the technology and provide viewers with something new. IFC in Theaters, which brings theatrical movie releases day date to cable has been a huge on demand initiative for Rainbow this year. We are the only ones out thereproviding MSOs the opportunity to air movies day and date. Right now we are doing 24 films a year, and we will continue to build this initiative in the coming months. How can MSOs and programmers create more win-win partnerships? The important thing to understand is that content providers really need to be in the business of supporting their distribution partners, and the only way to do that is by helping them build consumer growth.