Liguori named as new Discovery COO

Former Fox Entertainment chief Peter Liguori has been named chief operating officer at pay-TV channel provider Discovery. This follows the appointment of Mark Hollinger as chief executive and president of Discovery Networks International, replacing Greg Ricca.

Liguori was previously head of entertainment at News Corp-owned network Fox, where he spent four years, before leaving as part of the shakeup that saw Peter Chernin leave the company and Fox Searchlight boss Peter Rice become chairman of entertainment of Fox.

Liguori will oversee Discovery’s latest channel launches, including the joint venture with Oprah Winfrey – OWN – and a kids channel with Hasbro, and will chair the company’s content committee and run its production arm Discovery Studios.

Hollinger was previously chief operating officer of Discovery but was promoted earlier this month following the snap departure of Ricca, who had been at the company since 2007.