Less started with the STAR Group 17 years ago, having risen through the ranks including senior sales manager, and vice president sales roles with STAR.
At joint venture ESPN STAR Sports (ESS), Less was VP and most recently senior vice-president of advertising sales.
At AETN All Asia Networks (AAAN), which boasts History, Bio and Crime & Investigation amongst its channels, Less is reunited with his former ESS colleague Dennis Lim, who became AAAN’s vice-president of ad sales in January 2011.
Both Less and Lim report to Louis Boswell, general manager of AAAN, itself a joint venture between AETN International and Astro All Asia Networks.
The hiring of such a strong ad sales team is seen as a major commitment from the network to ramp up its advertising revenues.
Louis Boswell commented," I am delighted to announce Charles and Dennis’ appointments. The recent performance of History has clearly established it as one of the leading factual entertainment networks in the region and with the combined success of Bio. and Crime & Investigation, clearly the time was right to build a first class advertising sales team. In Charles and Dennis, I believe we have two of the industry’s best and most respected people and I have no doubt that they will continue to grow the advertising sales side of our business aggressively.”
It also signals the end of AAAN’s relationship with Sony Pictures Entertainment Asia (SPENA) which, in April 2009, was appointed to handle regional ad sales for AAAN’s bouquet of channels.