Moonves given Mipcom honor

TV mogul named Personality of the Year
By ELIZABETH GUIDER

Leslie Moonves has just been named Mipcom Personality of the Year, an honor bestowed annually on an international executive who has made significant contributions to the global TV biz.

Among his international coups, Moonves was one of the first execs in the U.S. to see the value of foreign reality programming (snagging "Big Brother" and "Survivor" early on) and was a champion of "CSI," which has become a foreign juggernaut.

The prexy-CEO of CBS Corp. will receive the accolade on Oct. 9 during a gala dinner for leading industry executives, as part of the 23rd Mipcom TV trade show in Cannes (Oct. 8-12).

"Leslie Moonves' exceptional flair and vision have transformed CBS into the industry's preeminent media company and built CBS Television to become the most watched television network in the U.S., in the process bringing hundreds of hours of viewing pleasure to millions of consumers," Reed Midem CEO Paul Zilk said.

"The international market is an important part of CBS Corporation's content and business operations, and I accept this honor on behalf of the talented team at CBS Paramount International Television, who make us look good in this arena every day," Moonves said.

In his present capacity, Moonves oversees all operations of the company, including CBS Television Network, the CW (a joint venture between CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. Entertainment), CBS Radio and Showtime, as well as the CBS Paramount Intl. TV unit. The latter, under prexy Armando Nunez, is the unit that sells CBS Paramount product into the international market.

The MIPCOM Personality of the Year Award was created in 1989 to pay tribute to exceptional careers in and contributions to the global TV biz.

Among recent recipients of the award are Time Warners Richard Parsons, Venevision's Gustavo Cisneros, and RTL Group CEO Gerhard Zeiler, as well as former MTV Networks chairman (and former Viacom co-equal with Moonves) Tom Freston.