Preston Padden has joined ABC Inc. as president of the television network, less than a month after leaving News Corp., where he was the head of American Sky Broadcasting, the company's beleaguered satellite TV venture.
Padden fills the post vacated by David Westin, who recently was named president of ABC News when Roone Arledge was promoted to chairman.
Padden said he will take a more active role than Westin did in ABC's Washington lobbying efforts. Padden, a seven-year veteran of News Corp., is credited with putting together the group of affiliate stations that strengthened the company's Fox network and with lobbying Washington to allow Chairman Rupert Murdoch, who is Australian-born, to bypass federal restrictions on foreign ownership of media properties.
Padden said he will also oversee network sales, affiliate relations, broadcast operations and engineering and network communications. Unlike Westin, however, Padden will not be in charge of network programming such as news and sports, which, he said, will report to ABC Inc. President Robert Iger.
