Discovery has a free place to crash in LA
One season of LA Ink, and the entire staff was smitten. Now, Discovery Communications’ TLC network is relocating to Los Angeles.
According to Monday’s Broadcasting & Cable, about “50 staffers from the network’s programming, production, marketing, research and communications teams will be affected” in the move from the channel’s Silver Spring, MD headquarters, either by lay off, reassignment, or relocation.
In the past, all Discovery Communications channels have operated out of Silver Spring; any LA-based assistance has involved travel and hired guns. But when former Fox TV Studios chief Angela Shapiro-Mathes was brought on as TLC’s president and GM, she decided that – creatively and financially – a coastal conversion was absolutely in order.
She’s not the only TV-industry honcho who thinks LA can be inspirational to the mind, body, and budget. Last month, Lifetime Television chief Andrea Wong said she intended to relocate that network’s marketing, programming, and scheduling departments from New York to Los Angeles, too.
Do these moves mark the beginning of a new trend — or just the moves of senior-level network execs who couldn’t stand the thought of yet another cross-country flight? (We opt for the former, most definitely.)
