Michelle Rice, a 16-year veteran of TV One, was named General Manager in July 2017. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing and leading all business, operational and creative aspects of the network. Since becoming General Manager, Rice has been responsible for the launch of two hit series UNCENSORED and ATL HOMICIDE. Most recently, Rice shepherded the development of TV One’s new sister network, CLEO TV, an aspirational lifestyle and entertainment TV network serving Millennial and Gen X women of color that launched in January 2019.
Prior to her promotion, Rice served as the Executive Vice President of Content Distribution and Marketing. As head of the department, Rice led development of distribution strategy and handled national accounts negotiations with all the major multichannel video programming distributors (MPVDs) to increase and maximize TV One’s content distribution opportunities on mobile, linear and non-linear distribution platform. She also handled domestic and international program sales and distribution for the network. Rice joined TV One in January 2004 as vice president of distribution strategy and operations. In March 2005 she was named a senior vice president and in February 2007 she was named an executive vice president.
Before joining TV One, Rice also had stints at iNDemand, NBC Cable Network and Black Entertainment Television (BET), where she started her career through the Walter Kaitz Fellowship program in 1993.
A graduate of Temple University and the University of Southern California, Rice was honored by her alma mater with the Lew Klein Alumni in Media Award. She was named one of on CableFAX’s Top 100 in Cable, Top Minorities in Cable and Top Women in Cable. She’s also been recognized as a NAMIC Emerging Leader, Broadcasting & Cable’s “Next Wave of Leaders,” “40 under 40” by Multichannel News, and one of Multichannel News’ Wonder Women. Rice was also a finalist in CableFAX’s Sales Executive of the Year Awards in 2012 and led the team, which was awarded CableFAX’s Sales Team of the Year for mid-sized cable networks. Rice has been featured in publications such as “Black Enterprise,” “Variety,” “Deadline,” “TV Week” and “The Root.” She was highlighted as a trailblazer in “CableFAX’s” Black History Month Special Report. In 2020 Rice was recognized by the Washington Business Journal’s with the Minority Business Leadership Award.
Rice is a Class 8 alumnus of Women in Cable and Telecommunications’ (WICT) prestigious Betsy Magness Leadership Institute, graduate of WICT’s Senior Executive Summit program at Stanford University, and a proud Class 11 alumnus of the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications’ Executive Leadership Develop Program.
Since 2011 Rice has served on WICT’s National Board of Directors in various roles, including a previous term on the executive committee as Governance Chair, as well as her current post as Chair of Fund Development. She has served on NAMIC’s National Board of Directors since 2008, having served as Board Chair from 2014 – 2017. Rice is also actively involved on the Boards of several local civic, community and charitable organizations, including Jack and Jill of America, Girls Inc. D.C, and United Way of the Nation’s Capital. She currently resides in Maryland with her family.
