Roger L. Werner is an American businessman and

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

executive. He was the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Operating Officer of

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. He also founded

Speedvision Speed was an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television network that was owned by the Fox Sports Media Group division of 21st Century Fox. The network was dedicated to motorsports programming, including auto racing, as well as aut ...

(now

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...

) and

Outdoor Life Network OLN (formerly Outdoor Life Network) is a Canadian English-language Category A specialty channel. OLN primarily broadcasts factual-based and adventure-related reality programming aimed at male audiences. OLN is wholly owned by Rogers Sports & ...

. Werner served as President and

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

(CEO) of the

Outdoor Channel Outdoor Channel is an American pay television channel focused on the outdoors, offering programming that includes hunting, fishing, Western lifestyle, off-road motorsports and adventure. The network can be viewed on multiple platforms including ...

, Outdoor Life Network and Speedvision. Currently, Werner is a member of an Automobile Competition Committee of the United States board that hears appeals regarding motorsport infractions.

Education

He is a graduate of

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

in Hartford, Connecticut. He holds a

Masters in Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

(MBA) from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

(1977) where he was class president. He currently serves as a member of the

University of Virginia Darden School of Business The Darden School of Business is the graduate business school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Darden School offers MBA, PhD, and Executive Education programs. The school was founde ...

Foundation Board of Trustees.

Career

Werner’s career in the television programming industry began in 1979 when he joined the international management firm McKinsey & Company. He left McKinsey to become ESPN’s Chief Operating Officer in March 1982. In 1988, Werner became the network’s President and CEO. During Werner's time at ESPN, the network became the largest cable television network, grew from $1 million to over $600 million in annual sales, and from an annual loss of $30 million to profits of approximately $150 million. In November 1990, Werner left ESPN and became president and chief executive of Prime Ventures. Prime Ventures was owned by cable pioneer

Bill Daniels Robert William Daniels Jr. (July 1, 1920 – March 7, 2000) was an American cable television executive and owner of professional sports teams. He was a pioneer in building the cable television industry and was known as the "father of cable televi ...

and had stakes in various regional sport networks. During this time, he also became president of

Prime Ticket Prime Ticket may refer to: * Bally Sports West, a regional sports network that was known as Prime Ticket from 1985 to 1995 * Bally Sports SoCal Bally Sports SoCal is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint v ...

(now Fox Sports West), another company owned by Bill Daniels. Prime Ticket was the largest regional sports network. Daniels sold both Prime Ventures and Prime Network by August 1994. Upon the sale, Werner left the companies. In 1994, Werner developed Speedvision as a channel for motor racing enthusiasts. In 1995, he developed the Outdoor Life Network. Werner served as both networks’ President and CEO. In 2001, Werner left Speedvision when the

Fox network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

bought Speedvision, including Werner's share in the company. Fox acquired Speedvision for $880 million and renamed it

Speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quanti ...

. In 2013, Fox again renamed the channel as Fox Sports 1. In the same transaction for Speevision, Fox bought Outdoor Life Network, including Werner's share in the company. Fox turned around and sold the Outdoor Life Network to Comcast. In 2005, Outdoor Life Network changed its name to Versus and in 2011, changed its name again to NBC Sports Network. From October 2006 to February 2012 Werner served as President and CEO of

Holdings. Werner remained on the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

until Outdoor's Channel was bought in February 2012 by

Kroenke Sports Enterprises Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) is an American sports and entertainment holding company based in Denver, Colorado. Originally known as Kroenke Sports Enterprises, it was started in 1999 by businessman Stan Kroenke to be the parent company ...

, a Denver-based private company. In 2014, Werner founded Torque.TV, a motorsports streaming video service, which later was merged into Motor Trend On Demand. Werner, as of 2020, also serves as the National Motorsports Final Appeals Officer, overseeing final appeals of penalties handed out by NASCAR.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Werner, Roger L Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American entertainment industry businesspeople American chief operating officers University of Virginia Darden School of Business alumni American chief executives Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni Presidents of ESPN