By Brent Lang
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Sassa will serve as the English-language cable network's new vice chairman. El Rey is being jointly launched by "El Mariachi" director Robert Rodriguez and FactoryMade Ventures.
Sassa served as the president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication group which oversaw the company's stakes in television properties like ESPN, History and Lifetime. He was brought low last March, however, when he was linked to an extortion plot involving a stripper and a series of sexually charged text messages.
In addition, Sassa served as president of NBC West Coast and president of the Turner Entertainment Group.
El Rey also announced that Antoinette Alfonso Zel will now step into the newly created role of chief marketing officer of El Rey. The network will launch in December 2013 and have nation-wide carriage via Comcast.
The El Rey deal was created as part of Comcast's promise to create more minority-owned channels, something it offered to do while seeking federal approval for its majority acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2010.
