William (Billy) M. Campbell III was the president of Discovery Networks U.S. from May 2002 to 2007, in this role he was responsible for all aspects of the domestic television division, including programming, production, affiliate sales and marketing, advertising sales, consumer marketing, research, business development and communications.

Biography

A native of

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...

, Campbell is a 1982 graduate of Harvard and a 1987 graduate of the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

(M.B.A.). He was a Rotary International Scholar. Among his most recent achievements, Campbell led efforts to recruit

Ted Koppel Edward James Martin Koppel (born February 8, 1940) is a British-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for '' Nightline'', from the program's inception in 1980 until 2005. Before ''Nightline'', he spent 20 years as a broad ...

to the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

for a pioneering multiyear deal in which Koppel, a 42-year veteran of network broadcasting serves as managing editor for the network and will host and produce long-form programming exclusively for the Discovery Channel. In 2005, Campbell oversaw the

team on the debut of its highest-rated program since 2000, “The Flight That Fought Back.” The special told the compelling story of the 33 passengers and seven crew members on

United Airlines Flight 93 United Airlines Flight 93 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight that was hijacked by four al-Qaeda attackers aboard the plane on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The plane eventually crashed in Som ...

. Campbell has overseen the debut of several other Discovery Channel signature hit series. The channel has also recently launched a host of programming that is breaking ground in new genres and formats, such as ''

Deadliest Catch ''Deadliest Catch'' is a reality television series that premiered on the Discovery Channel on April 12, 2005. The show follows crab fishermen aboard fishing vessels in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing seasons. The ...

'' and ''

Dirty Jobs ''Dirty Jobs'' is an American television series that originally aired on the Discovery Channel in which host Mike Rowe is shown performing difficult, strange, disgusting, or messy occupational duties alongside the job's current employees. The sh ...

''. Campbell is currently guiding the

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

team in the development of more than 100 programs. Campbell helped launch

FitTV FitTV was an American pay television channel, owned by Discovery Communications. The channel focused on fitness and exercise-related programming. FitTV offered programming with such fitness celebrities as Cathe Friedrich, Sharon Mann, Gilad Jankl ...

(formerly The Health Network) in 2004, as well as the relaunch of Discovery Home Channel (formerly Discovery Home & Leisure Channel) and the transition of Discovery Wings Channel to Military Channel in January 2005, which has resulted in significant ratings increases for the network. Prior to joining Discovery Networks, Campbell served from 1998 as president of Miramax Television, where he was responsible for all aspects of television, including development, marketing, legal affairs and production. Previously, Campbell was executive vice president, CBS Entertainment. Before joining CBS, Campbell served as senior vice president, drama development at

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

. Prior to joining ABC he worked as an analyst in the mergers and acquisitions department of Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. in New York. During a management overhaul in February 2007, Discovery announced Campbell was leaving the company. On January 15, 2009, Billy Campbell was seated in the second-to-last row of US Airways Flight 1549, which was ditched in New York's Hudson River with no casualties.

References

Living people Harvard Business School alumni People from Greenville, South Carolina CBS executives Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-business-bio-stub