14 Television Academy Members Among "Digital 50"

Hollywood Reporter, Producer's Guild Trumpet New Media Elite

Brian Seth Hurst (above), head of the Opportunity Management Co., lands at no. 6 on the "Digital 50," compiled by the Hollywood Reporter (Oct. 19, 2006 ed.).

More than a dozen Television Academy members recently made news, being named to “The Digital 50,” a list of the most significant players in digital storytelling compiled by the Hollywood Reporter and the Producers Guild of America’s New Media Council.

Sharing the number-one spot (with Todd Wagner) was Mark Cuban, whose production company HDNet Films has taken the lead in new “day-and-date” cross-platform distribution strategies; he is a member of the Academy’s interactive media peer group.

Number six on the list was outgoing governor of the interactive group, Brian Seth Hurst, CEO of Opportunity Management Co., a consultancy firm that works with broadcasters, cablers and the like to build initiatives across emerging platforms.

Nine other members of the Academy’s IM group made the Digital 50: at  number three were Nick DeMartino and Marcia Zellers, who together have worked to introduce digital savvy filmmakers to the American Film Institute; at number ten, Marc Levey, a cross-platform media specialist and principal partner in Pacific Media Ventures; at number twenty-two, Steven Hoffman, co-founder of Zannel, Inc., a company involved in mobile media platforms; at number twenty-six, Ross Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media; Ira Rubenstein, senior vice-president of Sony Pictures digital sales and marketing; and sharing number thirty-five, Richard Cardran, David Jensen and Mike Petrusis, who together founded and manage software firm Zetools (Jensen is a governor-elect for the Academy).

Two members of the Academy’s television executives peer group also made the cut: At number fourteen was Lucy Hood, president of Fox Mobile Entertainment, and at number seventeen, Richard Scott Russo, president of game company Perpetual Notion.

From the Academy’s children’s programming peer group, at number thirty-two, was Nancy Kanter, senior vice-president of original programming for the Disney Channel and a former peer-group governor.