Brian Offutt Appointed Senior Vice President, Entertainment Products, Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products

Brian Offutt Appointed Senior Vice President, Entertainment Products, Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products

Former Head of NVCP Los Angeles Relocates to New York to Oversee NVCP Entertainment Products Group

NEW YORK, May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Brian Offutt, the former head of Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products' Los Angeles office, has relocated to New York to oversee the NVCP home entertainment, publishing, and record business. The announcement was made today by Leigh Anne Brodsky, President, Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products, to whom he will continue to report.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060510/NYW142 )

In his new role as Senior Vice President, Entertainment Products, Offutt has been charged with managing the home video/DVD, publishing and music businesses for Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Noggin, and The N, as well as the home video/DVD, book publishing and videogame businesses for Comedy Central, Spike TV and TV Land and the book publishing business for Paramount -- all networks and the movie studio within the Viacom family that are handled for licensing and merchandising by NVCP. Specifically, he will oversee a staff that manages relationships with Paramount Home Entertainment that distributes all NVCP home videos; Nick Records, which has been in partnership with SONY BMG Strategic Marketing Group since 2004; and the publishing group, with partners including Simon & Schuster and Random House.

"Brian Offutt has been an integral part of Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products for the past year, setting up our licensing and merchandising team within Paramount Pictures and bringing to market such successful product as the Godfather videogame," said Brodsky. "He brings to his new position a keen understanding of both the entertainment and merchandising businesses to further develop our content-driven businesses," she said. Offutt replaces Stephen Youngwood, who last month became Executive Vice President, Digital Media, at Nickelodeon.

Before joining NVCP in January, 2005, Offutt was Chief Operating Officer of Broadway Video Entertainment, a leading independent television and film production company founded by Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. In that position, he was directly responsible for the company's post-production business unit, whose clients included CBS Sports, Showtime and MTV Networks. Prior to Broadway Video, Offutt was President and Chief Operating Officer of Interdimensions, an online technology and interactive solutions company. He also served as Senior Vice President of Golden Books, an executive recruiter at Spencer Stuart and an investment banking analyst at JP Morgan.

Offutt earned his BA from Harvard University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products manages the third largest licensing business in the world and such properties as SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer. The department handles the merchandising for Nick Jr., Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Comedy Central, MTVN International, and Spike TV.

Nickelodeon, now in its 27th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more than 89 million households and has been the number- one-rated basic cable network for ten consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom International Inc. (NYSE:VIA)(NYSE:VIA.B)

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060510/NYW142
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Source: Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products

CONTACT: Sara Levin, +1-212-846-8670, or Danny Diaz, +1-212-846-5961

Web site: http://www.nick.com/

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