NBC Universal has parted company with Ben Silverman, its colourful programming head, who leaves to form a new venture with Barry Diller's IAC media group.

Silverman had made a name for himself with Reveille, the TV company he started, which brought UK TV formats to the US and turned them into ratings winners. He also brought Ugly Betty to the US, turning a Colombian telenovella into a hit for the ABC network. But bets he has made on particular TV programmes have not paid off for NBC. The network continues to languish in the ratings, trailing ABC, CBS and Fox.

Now Silverman has teamed up again with Barry Diller, an early investor in his Reveille group, and will start a new media venture which IAC's Diller said bridges "the gap between traditional television and the internet."

Categories: Articles, OTT, OTT, People