BYRON ALLEN'S ALLEN MEDIA GROUP PROMOTES MICHAEL SENZON TO PRESIDENT OF DIGITAL

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Jun 01, 2022, 16:04 ET

Senzon Will Continue Leading The Local Now Streaming Service, The Weather Channel's Streaming TV Apps, and Allen Media Group's Expanding Portfolio of Streaming Platforms

LOS ANGELES, June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Byron Allen's Allen Media Group (AMG) proudly announces the promotion of Michael Senzon to President of Digital. His previous title was Senior Vice President, Digital and General Manager of Local Now -- the AMG free-streaming digital platform. In this new expanded role, Senzon is now responsible for developing and leading the AMG worldwide direct-to-consumer and streaming portfolio with a focus on providing greater content and product experiences for its users. Prior to joining Allen Media Group, Senzon spent his career in digital and streaming at major media and technology startups including ABC, CNN, and CNBC.

Michael Senzon, President of Digital, Allen Media Group

Senzon joined The Weather Channel/Weather Group just as Byron Allen completed its purchase in March 2018. Local Now has become a formidable competitor in the streaming arena, as the free-streaming platform has seen explosive growth in the past year. Local Now is the only free-streaming service to use artificial intelligence and proprietary software to provide over 450 local and national channels, local news, weather, traffic, sports, and over 14,000 movies, TV shows, documentaries, and additional free-streaming content to every city in America geofenced to the user's zip code.

Over the past year, the AMG digital team launched several new products including The Weather Channel's first direct-to-consumer product offering, providing users the ability to subscribe and watch The Weather Channel television network, the Sports.TV free-streaming service–which provides the most number of free sports channels found anywhere, and TheGrio, which expands the number one digital news/entertainment platform for Black America into a free-streaming service with the mission of creating and aggregating high-quality content. Earlier this year, AMG announced a long-term, comprehensive strategic partnership with Google. AMG will leverage Google's technology to further bolster all AMG digital platforms, including HBCU GO and other AMG streaming services currently in development.

"Michael Senzon's promotion is well-deserved and he is the ideal executive to lead and accelerate our digital first strategy as we expand our direct-to-consumer products worldwide," said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group. "Delivering excellent user experiences demands passion and expertise across business, content, product, and technology – and Michael provides this unique blend of leadership for AMG Digital every day."

"I am honored to be leading and partnering with the best digital teams on the planet," said Michael Senzon, President of Digital at Allen Media Group. "We have the essential components required to remain highly competitive in the streaming arena, and Byron Allen's vision, digital-first culture, unrivaled proprietary technology, and laser focus on delivering excellent content and
product experiences will continue to expand as we all forge ahead together."

About Allen Media Group / Entertainment Studios

Chairman and CEO Byron Allen founded Allen Media Group/Entertainment Studios in 1993. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it has offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Charleston, SC. Allen Media Group owns 27 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX network affiliate broadcast television stations in 21 U.S. markets and twelve 24-hour HD television networks serving nearly 220 million subscribers: THE WEATHER CHANNEL, THE WEATHER CHANNEL EN ESPAÑOL, PETS.TV, COMEDY.TV, RECIPE.TV, CARS.TV, ES.TV, MYDESTINATION.TV, JUSTICE CENTRAL.TV, THEGRIO.TV, THIS TV, and PATTRN. Allen Media Group also owns the streaming platforms HBCU GO, SPORTS.TV, THE GRIO, THE WEATHER CHANNEL STREAMING APP and LOCAL NOW--the free-streaming AVOD service powered by THE WEATHER CHANNEL and content partners, which delivers real-time, hyper-local news, weather, traffic, sports, and lifestyle information. Allen Media Group also produces, distributes, and sells advertising for 68 television programs, making it one of the largest independent producers/distributors of first-run syndicated television programming for broadcast television stations. Allen Media Group International Television continues to extend its corporate branding and content around the globe. It currently has active license agreements and programming in South Africa, The United Arab Emirates, Australia, The Bahamas, Canada and New Zealand. With a library of over 5,000 hours of owned content across multiple genres, Allen Media Group provides video content to broadcast television stations, cable television networks, mobile devices, and multimedia digital. Our mission is to provide excellent programming to our viewers, online users, and Fortune 500 advertising partners.

Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures is a full-service, theatrical motion picture distribution company specializing in wide release commercial content. ESMP released 2017's highest-grossing independent movie, the shark thriller 47 METERS DOWN, which grossed over $44.3 million. In 2018, ESMP also released the critically-acclaimed and commercially successful Western HOSTILES, the historic mystery-thriller CHAPPAQUIDDICK and the sequel to 47 METERS DOWN, 47 METERS DOWN: UNCAGED. The digital distribution unit of Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, Freestyle Digital Media, is a premiere multi-platform distributor with direct partnerships across all major cable, digital and streaming platforms. Capitalizing on a robust infrastructure, proven track record and a veteran sales team, Freestyle Digital Media is a true home for independent films.

In 2016, Allen Media Group purchased The Grio, a highly-rated digital video-centric news community platform devoted to providing African-Americans with compelling stories and perspectives currently underrepresented in existing national news outlets. The Grio features aggregated and original video packages, news articles and opinion pieces on topics that include breaking news, politics, health, business and entertainment. Originally launched in 2009, the platform was then purchased by NBC News in 2010. The digital platform remains focused on curating exciting digital content and currently has more than 100 million annual visitors.

For more information, visit: www.entertainmentstudios.com

SOURCE Allen Media Group