Time Warner Cable has hired David Rone, a former agent at Creative Artists and senior executive at Fox Sports and Walt Disney Co., to fill the newly created position of president of sports. Time Warner snagged the rights to the Los Angeles Lakers from Fox Sports earlier this year, and reportedly hope to use the team as the basis for a regional sports network based in southern California.
Melinda Witmer, Time Warner Cable’s executive vice president and Rone’s new boss, said Rone will “work to build and foster relationships with sports leagues, conferences, teams, programming providers and others in the sports industry. 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.