Viacom has formed a new program acquisitions group to coordinate the company's program acquisition activity across its portfolio of domestic media networks, including BET, Centric, MTV, VH1, CMT, Comedy Central, Spike TV, TV Land, Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite.

The program acquisitions group will unify the planning, analysis, inventory management, acquisition process and buying activity for all Viacom Media Networks' domestic program acquisitions.

The group will be jointly led by David Bernath, executive vice president, programming and multi-platform strategy, Comedy Central, and Barbara Zaneri, who will assume the newly created role of executive vice president, program acquisitions. Acquisitions executives at each of the individual networks will continue to lead the selection of acquisitions for their respective channels.

"Synchronizing our program buying activities across the Viacom portfolio will afford us the opportunity to further integrate our businesses and forge innovative partnerships," says Rich Eigendorff, chief operating officer, Viacom Media Networks. "With Barbara and Dave's creative approaches to seeking and securing off-net rights, we will continue to strengthen our robust mix of original programming with acquisitions and maximize value for our brands and our audiences."