Fight Network Launches US Expansion Strategy

TORONTO, ON – JUNE 10, 2008…George Burger, President and CEO of The Fight Network today announced the appointment of TwoBlueRhino (TBR) as the company’s U.S. Affiliate Sales and Marketing agent. Nory LeBrun, TBR’s President/Founder, will act as The Fight Network’s Executive Vice-President of U.S. Affiliate Sales and Marketing.  

Mr. LeBrun is a highly regarded cable veteran in the United States, with an unmatched list of successful cable brand launches, including CNN, Headline News, The WB 100+/CW Plus, The Food Network, and most recently, the Gospel Music Channel, which boasts nearly 40 million subscribers after just over three years of operations. LeBrun also led the rebranding and revised distribution plans for Home Shopping Network in the mid-90’s. 

“We are very pleased to have TBR and Nory on board,” said Mr. Burger. “The scope of his relationships, his outstanding reputation, and his knowledge of the nuances of an extremely complex market take us to a level at which The Fight Network can compete with the US cable brands for the support of the Cable, DBS, and Telco’s companies and their consumers. We have all the resources we need to execute our drive into the
 US market, which we are launching effective today.”

In this new position, Mr. LeBrun will be charged with developing and executing a distribution plan to launch The Fight Network in the United States and will be responsible for all aspects of affiliate sales/marketing, distribution and network development.  The Fight Network targets reaching 40 million subscribers in the U.S. over the next three years as part of its overall objective of reaching 100 million homes worldwide by 2012.

“I am excited to be a part of the unique ground-floor opportunity The Fight Network represents,” said Mr. LeBrun. “The concept is timely on many levels, it is being well executed, proving itself already in
 Canada and the
 United Kingdom , and the company has a team of executives and industry professionals on a par with the best I have been associated with. I am eager to get going.”

Mr. LeBrun began his career working alongside Ted Turner as Vice President Turner Cable Sales & Marketing. Mr. LeBrun built and led Turner’s original affiliate sales and marketing team---he and his team were the architects of the multi-service fee financial structure and local ad sales inventory for CNN, CNN Headline News and WTBS, the models widely used by cable networks today.

He also helped The Food Network with pre-launch financing and the construction of the original distribution partnerships, some of which continue to this day. The assembly of the original marketing and distribution team and initial carriage relationships were also crafted by the LeBrun team. 

Nory has had similar roles with each of the other brands with which he has been associated, either as head of affiliate sales and marketing group, or creating and operating affiliate groups for TBR’s clients. 

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