Hernan Lopez is out as the CEO of Fox International Channels (FIC) amidst a massive reorganisation of Fox's international TV business, dismantling the Fox International Channels unit.
The Fox International Channels name is being dumped in the massive regional restructure.
Instead Fox Networks Group will now have 3 global regions, each with a senior Fox International Channels executive who will now be called presidents, and who all directly report to Fox Networks Group CEO Peter Rice.
Hernan Lopez who has been the CEO of Fox International Channels since 2011 is gone, replaced with Jan Koeppen as president of Fox Networks Group Europe - presumably also overseeing Africa; Carlos Martinez as president of Fox Networks Group Latin America; and Zubin Gandevia as president of Fox Networks Group Asia.
Fox International Channels and Fox International Channels Africa (FIC Africa) is eliminated as an international channels unit with the Europe, Latin America and Asia consolidation.
Fox International Channels supplied channels like FOX News, FOX, the various National Geographic channels, Baby TV, the FOX Sports channels, FX and FOX Crime to pay-TV operators like MultiChoice's DStv and On Digital Media and StarTimes Media SA's StarSat.
"As our television business expands globally, the success and scale of our entertainment and sports brands in these fast-growing regions demand that they stand independently," says Peter Rice.
Fox International Channels, now Fox Networks Group, runs more than 350 international entertainment, sports, factual and movie channels that reaches an estimated worldwide audience of 1.8 billion people in 45 languages.
It's not immediately clear how the restructuring affects what was Fox International Channels Africa with Ratna Siriah who was appointed in November 2015 as the new general manager of Fox International Channels Africa.
Ratna Siriah's title will likely change with the discontinuation of the Fox International Channels Africa name, and it's also not immediately clear from FIC Africa whether the Africa division will now resort under Europe or what is happening.
The restructuring of FIC under the Fox Networks Group is happening as the global restructuring of the National Geographic Channels have been taking place.
The National Geographic Channels, owned by Fox, has been going through a major management realignment under which most programming, commissioning and scheduling decisions for the channels worldwide will now be centred in and done from the United States.