Rich Ross Named President Of Discovery Channel

Rich Ross has been named President of Discovery Channel and will join the companies Los Angeles offices in January. (via Deadline)

Ross will be coming in at a time when Discovery Channel has recently announced their strong fourth quarter, with viewership up 17 percent.

Ross will be leaving Shine America as his role as CEO since 2013. Ross was responsible for Shine Group's U.S. operations as well as cable and digital platforms that included shows and networks such as NBC's The Biggest Loser, Fox's MasterChef and HBO's upcoming drama Utopia, to name a few.

Ross will be replacing Marjorie Kaplan, who has been named interim head of Discovery Channel in August.

"Rich is someone who can re-imagine a great brand and nourish an audience with scripted and non-scripted programming," Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav told Variety. " He's someone that creatives love to work with. Having Rich on board gives us the ability to take harder and bigger swings on the content and marketing side. I love the ambition he has for Discovery."

Zaslav recruited Ross because of his proven executive track records and his strong marketing skills. Ross was even handpicked by Shine founder Elisabeth Murdoch to help the group's U.S. outpost.

Ross had a long-time stint serving Disney from 1996–2012, where he was most recently chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 2009–12. He oversaw worldwide production and film labels such as Walt Disney, Disney-Pixar and Marvel. He has served as President of Disney Channels Worldwide from 2004–09.