MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) has appointed Assaf Tarnopolsky as vice president, mobile programming and digital product development. Based at SPTI’s headquarters in Culver City, California, he reports to Marie Jacobson, SPTI’s executive vice president, programming and production, international networks.

Jacobson stated, “Assaf’s background is a great fit for this newly created position at SPTI – extensive international experience, targeted mobile content and distribution experience and a passion for all that lies ahead in the digital space. His technical expertise partnered with the group’s programming and production focus will no doubt stretch SPTI’s capacity to deliver to an ever-expanding consumer-base around the world.”

In his new position, Tarnopolsky is responsible for developing and implementing a cross-company mobile content strategy, including video, games, personalization and premium short message service consumer campaigns. Original video and related personalization products are a key component of SPTI’s commercial mobile strategy and Tarnopolsky is charged with both managing existing properties and forging new partnerships and content opportunities to fuel the SPTI pipeline.

He works with SPTI’s distribution, production and networks business lines to design product offerings, communicate the mobile product slate across SPTI, and strategize product roll-out by territory. He is charged with identifying cross-company digital content opportunities, either repurposing existing content or co-developing proprietary content opportunities for multi-regional deployment.

He also oversees SPTI’s mobile gaming strategy in support of key studio tentpole products which includes managing the development and production of such games in line with an aggressive strategy to deploy key games in a competitive global marketplace.

Prior to joining SPTI, Tarnopolsky was director, business development, of MobiTV in Emeryville, California, since 2005. At MobiTV, his focus was international in scope and was responsible for the company’s entrance into the Latin American market, by identifying strategic partnerships and closed a multi-year distribution deal with the region’s largest carrier group. Prior to MobiTV, Tarnopolsky held roles at Discovery Communications, The Industry Standard and ran his own business.