MGM Worldwide TelevisionDistribution has appointed veteran television executive Marcus Ammon as generalmanager of the MGM Channel in Germany, the largest cable and satellite marketin Europe. Ammon will be based in Munich, where he will oversee day-to-dayaffairs including programming, marketing, sales and technical operations at thechannel, which is due to launch in the second quarter of 2003. Plans for theventure - which is to be the first German branded MGM channel - were announcedin October last year under an agreement with the pay-television providerPremiere. Ammon will report to Bruce Tuchman, executive vice president of MGMNetworks.

The MGM Channel will becarried on the Premiere Plus Tier of the Premiere platform on a 24- hour,seven-day-a-week basis to subscribers in Germany and Austria. It will also beavailable for cable distribution across all of German-speaking Europe. Contentwill be culled from MGM's 4,000-title film library and early plannedbroadcasts feature Annie Hall, Midnight Cowboy, Platoon, Raging Bull and West Side Story.

Ammon arrives from UniversalStudios Networks Germany, where he most recently served as programme director.Prior to Universal he spent two years with free television channel KABEL 1Fernsehen, where he worked as programme scheduler of TV movies and featurefilms before becoming head of the department.