UWTV, the University of Washington's television station and production facility, is reshaping itself to occupy a more central role in portraying what happens at the UW to the rest of the world.

The university recently hired John Haslam as general manager of the operation. Haslam, a partner at Alliance Media Network, formerly was director of marketing and media development at Comcast Spotlight. Also joining UWTV as director of business development and strategic partnerships is Greg Bennett. Bennett, also a partner at Alliance Media Network, was formerly vice president and general manager for Washington state at Comcast Spotlight.

"I am excited to be joining a media organization that helps our region and the rest of the world discover all the amazing things happening at the University of Washington," Haslam says.

The station's new management plans to build on its viewer base and create more programming of interest to state residents, including the many thousands of UW alumni. UWTV recently began airing Huskies Coach Steve Sarkisian's Monday news conferences live and is working with Intercollegiate Athletics to identify other opportunities for engaging sports fans. Haslam and Bennett also plan to reach out to UW academic departments on all three campuses as well as clinicians and researchers at UW Medicine in an effort to find new ways to share the work going on in UW laboratories, classrooms, clinics and hospitals.

"We believe there is great potential for UWTV," says Randy Hodgins, UW vice president for external affairs, the new organizational home for the station. "We want the station to act as a window on the campus, reflecting the diverse activities and excitement of discovery that takes place here."

UWTV is available on cable systems throughout the state. Locally, UWTV can be viewed on Comcast channel 27. A second channel, UW2.tv on Comcast channel 76, airs a combination of UW programming, NASA programming, and material from ResearchChannel, which is a national consortium of universities and research institutions founded by and managed at the UW.

UWTV has a robust online presence, with a Web site visited more than four million times annually for downloads or online viewing. So far this year, more than five million videos have been accessed online.

UWTV has full studio and remote video production capabilities, video fiber transport with locations around the state, and satellite uplinks allowing regional and national distribution, as well as fiber connections to Husky sports facilities that can provide live feeds of events to other locations.

More information about UWTV is at uwtv.org.