Herb Scannell
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Herb Scannell, born January 11, 1957 in Long Island, New York of Puerto Rican descent, is CEO of Next New Networks and former President of Nickelodeon Networks and Vice-Chairman of Viacom's MTV Networks.
Scannell was born in New York to an Irish-American father and Puerto Rican mother as the youngest of four. He received his primary and secondary education in his hometown. His mother taught him Spanish at home helping him to become fluent in both English and Spanish. As a child he would spend every summer with his Puerto Rican family in the island becoming very attached to his Hispanic roots.
Scannell graduated from high school in 1975 and entered Boston College. As a student he became the manager of WZBC (the campus' radio station). He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelors Degree in English.
Scannell was hired by WHN Radio (New York) in 1980, before joining the cable television revolution in 1981 at The Movie Channel before it merged with Showtime, and eventually worked his way up to the position of Director of Program Promotion for Showtime/The Movie Channel.
On March 1988, Scannell joined Nickelodeon as Director of Programming, overseeing program scheduling. In 1989, he was named Vice President for Nickelodeon. He oversaw the development and launch of Nick News. In 1990, he served as Executive Vice President for Nickelodeon Network and U.S. Television. He oversaw the direction of Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite cable networks. He was also fundamental in the development of Nick Jr. and Nicktoons.
On February 1996, he was named President of Nickelodeon and TV Land. Under his leadership Nicktoons (which included such animated cartoons as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Rugrats, and Doug), and TV Land became the highest rated cable networks launched within the past seven years. Nickelodeon also expanded to other areas such as live theatrical shows, magazines and feature films. He was also responsible for launching Dora the Explorer, The Brothers Garcia (which is based on a Los Garcia, a show he used watch in Puerto Rico) and Taina.
On June 2003, MTV Chairman Tom Freston named Scannell as president of Nickelodeon Networks and vice chairman of MTV Networks. (On January 5, 2006, he resigned from his position with MTV/Nickelodeon, and was replaced by Cyma Zarghami.) He played a lead role in the overall management of the entire company. Among the many awards and recognitions which he received are:
- CTAM Awards
- BPME Awards
- NAMIC Vision and Image Award (2001)
- Profile in Latino Leaders Magazine (2004)
- Amnesty International Award {2004)
On August 22, 2005, he participated in "The State of Hispanic America National Conference" as a member of the Executive Roundtable. Herb Scannell currently lives in Manhattan, New York with his wife and two daughters, Caroline and Isabelle.
In January 2007, Scannell announced the formation of Next New Networks, a new media company of micro-television networks distributed through internet technology. Co-founders include Emil Rensing, Fred Seibert, Tim Shey, and Jed Simmons. The company is funded with partner Spark Capital. The company's first group of networks include VOD Cars and Channel Frederator.
