Michelle Rice, was named President of TV One and CLEO TV in October 2020. Previously, Rice served as General Manager since 2017. She will continue to have oversight of all business, operational and creative aspects for both networks.
Rice shepherded the development and launch of TV One’s new sister network, CLEO TV, an aspirational lifestyle and entertainment TV network serving Millennial and Gen X women of color that launched in January 2019. Since its launch, Rice has successfully leveraged relationships to expand distribution of CLEO TV on AT&T, Charter, Comcast, and Verizon’s platforms. Under her leadership, TV One solidified its first vMVPD distribution deal with Philo TV and has continued to grow its distribution footprint. She has also played a pivotal role in working with strategic partners like the NAACP to create linear and digital content campaigns in response to a myriad of political and social issues that profoundly impact communities of color.
She was previously Executive Vice President of Content Distribution and Marketing for TV One, where she developed distribution strategies and handled national accounts negotiations with major multichannel video programming distributors (MPVDs) to increase and maximize TV One’s content distribution opportunities on mobile, linear and non-linear distribution platforms. She also handled domestic and international program sales and distribution for the network.
Before joining TV One, Rice also had stints at iNDemand, NBC Cable Network and Black Entertainment Television (BET), where she started her career through the Walter Kaitz Fellowship program in 1993.
A graduate of Temple University and the University of Southern California, Rice was honored by her alma mater with the Lew Klein Alumni in Media Award. She was named one of on CableFAX’s Top 100 in Cable, Top Minorities in Cable and Top Women in Cable. She’s also been recognized as a NAMIC Emerging Leader, Broadcasting & Cable’s “Next Wave of Leaders,” “40 under 40” by Multichannel News, and one of Multichannel News’ Wonder Women. Rice was also a finalist in CableFAX’s Sales Executive of the Year Awards in 2012 and led the team, which was awarded CableFAX’s Sales Team of the Year for mid-sized cable networks. Rice has been featured in publications such as “Black Enterprise,” “Variety,” “Deadline,” “TV Week” and “The Root.” She was highlighted as a trailblazer in “CableFAX’s” Black History Month Special Report. In 2020 Rice was recognized by the Washington Business Journal’s with the Minority Business Leadership Award.
Rice is also actively involved on the Boards of several local civic, community and charitable organizations, including Jack and Jill of America, Girls Inc. D.C, and United Way of the Nation’s Capital. She currently resides in Maryland with her family.
