Robert W. Pittman

Infobox Person
name = Robert W. (Bob) Pittman
birth_date = birth date and age|1953|12|28
birth_place = Mississippi, United States
footnotes =

Robert W. "Bob" Pittman (born 28 December 1953), the programmer who led the team that created MTV, has been CEO of MTV Networks, AOL Networks, Six Flags Theme Parks, Quantum Media, Century 21 Real Estate and Time Warner Enterprises. He was also COO of America Online, Inc. and AOL Time Warner. He has also been a radio and TV programmer, marketer, media entrepreneur and investor who has had multiple careers in a number of consumer-focused industries.

Biography

At MTV, he oversaw the creation and growth of MTV and the transition of Nickelodeon from a network geared to preschoolers to one aimed at older kids as well as overseeing the launches of VH-1 and Nick at Nite, and led the initial public offering for MTV Networks and its expansion into international markets. MTV became the first profitable cable network under his leadership and was the most profitable cable network during his tenure there.

After MTV, Pittman founded Quantum Media with MCA (one of the company’s ventures was the Morton Downey Jr. show, an early television shock talk show), and in 1989, he bought out MCA, sold the assets to Warner Communications and became senior advisor to Warner Communications CEO Steve Ross just as Warner was merging with Time Inc. to create Time Warner. In 1990, he was appointed President and CEO of Time Warner Enterprises, the new business group of Time Warner, and in 1991 became Chairman and CEO of Six Flags Theme Parks where his team oversaw the revitalization of the Six Flags brand. Pittman led a process that led to Time Warner selling a controlling interest in Six Flags to Boston Ventures in 1995, and Pittman then left to join Century 21 Real Estate as CEO. Pittman and his team grew Century 21 Real Estate through a strategy which included brand-building and national marketing, the early adoption of the Internet as a lead-generating tool (he met Steve Case this way and joined the board of directors of America Online while at Century 21), and a new franchise sales organization. After joining the management of America Online from its board of directors in 1996, he led the operating team that moved AOL from 6 million members to over 30 million; took the company profitable; introduced mass market advertising as a revenue source; and continued the mission of AOL's cofounder, Steve Case, to make the Internet as easy to use as the telephone or television. The company’s most memorable ad of that time had the tagline “America Online: So Easy To Use, No Wonder It’s Number One.” After AOL merged with Time Warner in 2001, Pittman became the Co-COO (and then COO) of the combined AOL Time Warner before leaving the company in 2002. Pittman joined a number of his longtime operating team colleagues when he co-founded Pilot Group LLC, a private investment firm based New York in 2003. Pilot and its members have controlling investments in DailyCandy, Thrillist, Barrington Broadcasting, Double O Radio, OTX Research and North American Membership Group and also have stakes in companies including David's Bridal, Spotrunner, iLike.com, Next New Networks, Zynga and Rapleaf and have sold investments that include Stereogum and IdealBite. In August 2008, Pilot Group sold DailyCandy to Comcast for a reported $125 million.

Pittman also has a history in philanthropy, building community and philanthropic projects into every business he managed from Live Aid at MTV to educational efforts using the Internet at AOL. He is currently chairman of the non-profit Robin Hood Foundation, which fights poverty in New York City. He is a former chairman of the New York Public Theater and still serves on that board as well as the boards of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, NYU Medical Center, Trinity School and the Alliance for Lupus Research. He is also a former board member of Electronic Arts, Atari Games, Excite, 3DO, MTV Networks, America Online, HFS/Cendant/Realogy and AOL Time Warner. Pittman was born in Mississippi and became a radio announcer at the age of 15 to earn money for flying lessons. He was an announcer in a number of cities and then successfully programmed radio stations in Pittsburgh, Chicago and finally at the NBC flagship station, WNBC, in New York when he was 23 years old. He also produced and co-hosted a music video and news show in 1978 that ran on the NBC O& O television stations. He did learn to fly - he has been a pilot for almost 40 years and has almost 5,000 flight hours; currently holds an Airline Transport Pilot's license for airplanes; and is rated for helicopters and 3 types of jets.

References

External links

* [http://frederatorblogs.com/channel_frederator/2007/09/02/buzzco-mtv/ Buzzco & MTV. From Frederator Blogs September 2nd, 2007]
* [http://frederatorblogs.com/frederator_studios/2006/09/05/bob-pittman/ Bob Pittman. From Frederator Blogs September 5th, 2006]
* [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/P/htmlP/pittmanrobe/pittmanrobe.htm The museum of broadcast communications PITTMAN, ROBERT W. U.S. Media Executive]