Comedy Central wants to transform its Web site from a promotional vehicle for the network to an Internet portal with original content in full-motion video.
Taking the first major step, the network has hired Ken Locker, CEO of iMovie Studio, to assume the new post of senior VP of enterprises and new media.
Locker says Comedy Central has an advantage over the almost limitless number of Web sites in the marketplace because “it’s a big brand, which reaches 67 million homes.” His goal is to turn the network’s Web site into “the wiseass comedy-lifestyle portal,” in his words, readily available “on all of the digital platforms.”
Comedy Central will spend the next six months or so redesigning its Web site, and Locker says the network will relaunch it sometime in the second quarter of 2001.
Locker will also be in charge of Comedy Central’s licensing and merchandising, as well as its digital initiatives.
Before iMovie Studio, Locker was executive producer and g.m. of online programming for MGM Interactive from 1996 to 1998.
