Fran Shea

Fran Shea, former president of E! Entertainment Television, is currently EVP of  Programming and Marketing for Game Show Network.  She previously managed her own consulting business covering  broadcast, cable and digital media with a broad range of experience in business, content and audience development.  



She is the founder of HBOlab (launched 5/07), a content driven, creative experiment within HBO. HBOlab explored a variety of business models using digital content to build and grow audiences.



Fran is the former president of E! Entertainment Television (1999-2001). Under her leadership the highly successful cable channel, which is now available in over 90 million homes, reached record profitability. Preceding her presidency she originated and developed the programming and on-air brand for E! Entertainment Television (1990-1999) over a nine year period as Senior Vice President of Programming. Managing a creative and technical staff of 700, she was responsible for the creative growth of the channel including the development and production of all shows.


Fran spent a decade as a producer/executive at HBO. She won a producer Emmy for a documentary about the career of James Stewart.  She is a graduate of SCSU with a BS in Journalism and has completed a Masters in Media Studies at The New School in New York (2013).



Fran is currently teaching Distribution and Marketing for Film at NYU/Tisch. She is a frequent speaker/teacher on the subjects of creative management, low-cost/high volume content creation and audience development.