Scott M. Sassa is an American entertainment executive who has held a number of high-level executive positions in large entertainment companies. Sassa is currently chairman of MILK Makeup.

Biography

Early career

Early in his career, Sassa was vice president of New Business Development at Ohlmeyer Communications Co., which was headed by Don Ohlmeyer. He also served as vice president of network management for the

Fox Broadcasting Company Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an Television in the United States, American commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast television broadcaster, television network serving as the flagship proper ...

. Sassa was among the first people hired by Fox and he ran its operations and administration departments.

Turner Broadcasting

Sassa spent nine years at Turner Broadcasting System, finishing his tenure as president of Turner Entertainment Group and a member of Turner's board of directors and TBS's executive committee. Sassa joined Turner Broadcasting in 1982, first as director of Sales promotion, then executive producer of '' Night Tracks'' in 1983 which led to him becoming vice president and general manager of the company's Cable Music Channel in 1984. He began his career with Rogers & Cowan public relations agency. Sassa is credited with building Turner's entertainment cable channels into industry leaders, launching seven networks over a seven-year period – including three of the top five rated basic cable networks. From 1992 to 1996, he was responsible for all operations and programming for TBS Superstation, Turner Network Television,

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...

and Turner's international entertainment networks in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Sassa recruited Amy Pascal to start up Turner Pictures, a feature film production company that developed and produced '' You've Got Mail'', '' Any Given Sunday'' and '' Gettysburg''. Sassa was also responsible for Turner Home Video, Turner Licensing and Merchandising, Turner Publishing, Turner New Media, Turner Original Productions and

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

Cartoons Inc. Sassa was named executive vice president of Turner Network Television in 1988, where he was instrumental in the network's launch, the largest at that time. After Turner, Sassa was president and chief operating officer of Andrews Group, a unit of MacAndrews & Forbes Holding, and the chief executive officer of Marvel Entertainment.

NBC

Sassa joined NBC in September 1997 as president of the NBC Television Stations division. In this position, he was responsible for overseeing the operation of NBC's 13 owned-and-operated television stations. From May 1999, Sassa served as president of NBC West Coast, responsible for overseeing all of NBC's entertainment-related businesses and reported to Bob Wright, chairman and chief executive officer, NBC. Sassa made the transition to that position after working with his predecessor, Don Ohlmeyer, and serving as president of NBC Entertainment since October 1998. During this time, he oversaw the development and production of NBC's new primetime series, including such shows as ''

The West Wing ''The West Wing'' is an American political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White House, where t ...

'', '' Freaks and Geeks'', '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' and '' Fear Factor''. Under Sassa, NBC was the number-one network three out of four seasons.

Friendster

From 2004 to 2005, Sassa served as president and CEO of Friendster, a top 50 Internet site that pioneered social networking. Friendster was backed by Kleiner Perkins and Benchmark Capital. After Friendster, he served as Residence with Kleiner Perkins, a leading technology

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm.

Hearst

Sassa joined Hearst in 2008, where he was president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, the operating group responsible for Hearst's interests in cable television networks, including

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, Lifetime, A&E and

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

; television production and distribution; newspaper syndication; and merchandise licensing. In February 2013 Hearst Ventures became part of the Entertainment & syndication group. He left Hearst after executives became aware of an

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

plot involving a

stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at private events. Modern forms of stripping m ...

with whom he was sexting.

El Rey Network

Sassa was vice chairman of El Rey Network, a new US cable network founded by director

Robert Rodriguez Robert Anthony Rodriguez ( ; born June 20, 1968) is an American filmmaker, composer, and visual effects supervisor. He shoots, edits, produces, and scores many of his films in Mexico and in his home state of Texas. Rodriguez directed the 1992 ...

, from 2013–2015.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sassa, Scott American television executives NBCUniversal people NBC executives Presidents of NBC Entertainment NBC West Coast Presidents Fox Broadcasting Company executives Living people American people of Japanese descent Year of birth missing (living people)