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Thursday, Feb 13, 2025

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Blair Westlake has survived two company restructurings and is ready for a third.

Westlake, 43, is the recently appointed chairman of Universal Networks and Worldwide Television Distribution Group, a newly created division of Universal City-based Universal Studios Inc. The division was created following a deal with Home Shopping Networks Inc. (renamed USA Networks) that has Universal giving up control of its domestic TV production studio as well as cable channels the Sci-Fi Channel and USA Networks.

Westlake’s division will handle international TV production and domestic TV distribution of Universal’s film and television library.

The last time Westlake went through a restructuring was in 1995, when Universal was bought by Seagram Co. Before that, he was with the company, then called MCA Inc., when ownership transferred to Matsushita in 1991.

Westlake said he wasn’t adversely affected by those changes or the current ones.

“As the saying goes, I’m still here,” he said.

The Pasadena resident has been at Universal since 1982, when he started as an attorney in the legal department of MCA working on contracts for the Universal Studios theme park in Florida. He was later made vice president of legal affairs, and his latest post was president of Universal Studios Pay Television and Television Business Development.

The new TV group has three units: international television programming development, production and distribution; domestic television distribution of Universal’s feature film library in all forms of television; and television networks. Westlake will oversee the company’s overall TV business development activities, including the acquisition of existing broadcasting and cable services, and the launch of new channels mainly overseas.

Universal’s latest channel, 13th Street, was recently launched in France, he said, and there are future plans to expand it to Germany and Spain.

“Distribution in the U.S. on cable is almost impossible. There’s not enough capacity in the analog world,” Westlake said. European cable uses digital technology, which allows for increased capacity.

As part of the deal transferring Universal’s TV production studio to USA Networks, Universal gave up production of such shows as “Law & Order,” “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” and “Xena: Warrior Princess.”

But that doesn’t bother Westlake. Universal’s library of 3,000 movies and 18,000 television episodes, which he’s been charged with managing, still contains his favorite show “Magnum P.I.”

Chris Denina

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