Paul Yanover has been tapped to fill the newly created post at Fandango, where he will bulk up the ticketing company's original content.
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Yanover, a former Disney executive, will report to Nick Lehman, the president of digital for NBC Universal Entertainment Networks & Interactive Media.
Yanover will lead the company's overall business strategy with a focus on growing its original content. To that end, Fandango recently lured Dave Karger away from Entertainment Weekly last week, to be the face of the company, popping up on NBC programs like "Today."
"Paul is the ideal leader to build on the incredible momentum of this business, as Fandango broadens its offerings for consumers, advertisers as well as exhibitors — and maximizes the unique benefits of being part of NBC Universal," Lehman said in a statement. "His wealth of experience at the intersection of entertainment and technology will help Fandango continue to redefine the way we think about the movies."
Rick Butler, Fandango's executive vice president and general manager, will report to Yanover and continue to run the company's day-to-day operations.
Fandango said it recently had its best summer in terms of ticket sales and traffic, attracting 41 million unique visitors to the site.
The company also had a great deal of success attracting major chains to the fold and away from chief competitor MovieTickets.com.
In February, Fandango managed to convince the country's second largest theater chain to jump ship from MovieTickets.com, adding 3,000 more screens to its rolls. Making the defection particularly painful is the fact that AMC was one of the companies that founded MovieTickets.com in 2000 and remains a part owner.
Then, in short order, Fandango announced it has partnered with three MovieTickets.com cohorts, AOL Moviefone, Yahoo! Movies and MSN Entertainment, to sell tickets, putting it substantially ahead in the battle to establish a foothold on the major portals.
