Meet the President
|
Christopher S. Stark, Sr.
President / C.E.O.
Christopher Stark Sr. is President and CEO of E-Guide Services and FYI Television. With over 40 years of experience in the TV listings industry, Stark was instrumental in setting the stage for real-time
and accurate TV listings. His knowledge and expertise in TV listings has proven successful, growing both E-Guide Services and FYI Television into nationally recognized companies.
|
|
Stark began his career in 1968 in a traditional printing operation that designed, produced, and distributed newspaper and franchised TV listing booklets. In 1976, he acquired a troubled printing business
in Dallas and within three years returned the operation to profitability and sold it to New York City based United Features Syndicate Corporation.
From there, Stark joined Cosmo Graphics, based in New York. As the General Manager of Cosmo’s Dallas operation, he oversaw the production of over 400 weekly TV booklets. After becoming President and CEO,
Stark began to realize the limitations of TV booklet listings and in 1984 formed a subsidiary company, TV Listings Group Inc., to design, develop, and write custom software for computer database television
listings. This method proved so successful, Cosmo Graphics expanded to over 60 monthly cable magazines and 900 weekly and daily newspapers.
Stark sold Cosmo Graphics and TV Listings Group to TV Host Publishing Company in 1988 in order to found his next projects, Encore Publishing Group, Inc and TV Team. Using his unique and highly flexible
PC-based technology, Encore Publishing and TV Team were able to accumulate, edit, translate, distribute, and sell TV programming information in 13 countries and five languages.
By 1995, Stark had merged both companies and partnered them with JD Publishing of Milwaukee to form a new operation, ONTV, Inc. As president of ONTV, he oversaw the production of JD Publishing’s 90 customized
monthly cable guides of 10,000 listing pages with a combined circulation of more than 4 million magazines per month. In 1997, JD Publishing and ONTV officially merged to form JDTV and Stark was named
Executive Vice President of TV Information Services and Operations.
Stark further enhanced his reputation as an industry leader in 1997. Cable operators introduced their new “set-top boxes” that were originally designed to receive, maintain, and display television listing
information; however, these devices suffered from major design and hardware weaknesses including a severe lack of memory. Stark helped correct and support these devices, and more importantly gained first
hand knowledge of the cable operator’s dissatisfaction with contemporary print, online, and onscreen listings.
|
Seeing an opportunity to revolutionize the TV listing industry, Stark left JDTV in 1999 and started FYI Television (FYI)—now the leading provider of onscreen, online, and print listings. FYI currently
boasts an international client database, editing over 8,500+ cable and satellite TV networks daily for companies including Microsoft, AT&T, and Verizon. Today’s cable TV, satellite TV, daily and weekly
newspapers, and Internet portal listings all turn to FYI for their TV listing information. FYI designed, developed and deployed its own custom software using state-of-the-art-technology. With FYI’s 500
plus individual program types, categories and subcategories, it’s easy to see how FYI provides the most flexible and accurate TV listing content.
|
In early summer 2007 Stark was looking for an opportunity to expand FYI Television into new markets that would benefit from the content listing power of FYI. After determining the competition and balancing
those with the needs of consumers, Stark saw the chance to provide TV listings content in digital formats to the hospitality, health care, and education industries, all of which lacked on-screen television
channel guides. While other electronic listing companies were attempting to provide this service, Stark realized they lacked the key to fill their programming guide with timely and accurate listings,
formed E-Guide Services and created E-GuideTV to provide a solution for those apparent needs. E-Guide Services now is the leading provider of high performance and fully customized television channel guides
for the hospitality industry. Delivering accurate and up-to-date local TV listings content along with targeted advertising, E-GuideTV brings a dynamic experience to hospitality television. E-GuideTV
is now contracted in over 1,600 properties consisting of over 165,000 rooms and is growing daily.
With Stark’s early career as a printer and publisher, followed by his innovative work on custom electronic database TV listings, he is seen as a pioneer in the TV listing industry. Consistently introducing innovative ideas to the marketplace that have proven successful, Stark continues to work intensely to introduce E-GuideTV nationwide.
|
|
E-Guide Services, Inc. and MyLeisureBusiness.biz Form Marketing PartnershipDecember 9, 2008E-Guide Services, Inc. (EGS) announced Wednesday that it has signed a long-term agreement with MyLeisureBusiness.biz (MLB) forming a strategic marketing partnership that aids both companies in cross promotion of globally marketed products and services to business and leisure travelers as well as the hospitality industry. more... E-Guide Services, Inc. Contracts Accor North America, Motel 6 and Studio 6November 13, 2008E-Guide Services, Inc. (EGS) has signed an agreement with Accor North America, Motel 6 and Studio 6 to install E-GuideTV, a fully customizable television guide channel, as an added amenity to Accor corporately owned Motel 6 and Studio 6 properties. more... NACE to Showcase E-GuideTV at HITECMay 7, 2008North American Cable Equipment (NACE) is showcasing E-Guide Services’ E-GuideTV, a FREE, real-time television guide channel designed to keep hotel guests in the know with up-to-date TV listings, local and national advertisements, local time and date. more...
View all press releases
|
