Media industry moves
* Amazon.com Inc. is planning to construct a new centralized air hub in Kentucky that will support cargo planes for its Prime Air delivery service, the company said Jan. 31. The facility at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron will focus on loading, unloading and sorting packages for 16 Prime Air cargo planes currently in operation. The air hub is expected to hire more than 2,000 workers.
* Oprah Winfrey will join the news broadcast "60 Minutes" by CBS Corp.'s CBS News as a special contributor, the company said Jan. 31. Winfrey will make her first appearance on CBS News' Sunday night broadcast this fall.
* Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. unit Starz extended the employment agreement of its COO Jeffrey Hirsch, the company said Jan. 30. Hirsch will now serve through December 2020 under a new long-term agreement with Starz.
* Ancestry.com LLC named Nat Natarajan executive vice president of product and technology, according to a Jan. 30 news release. Vineet Mehra is also joining Ancestry as executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
* Former BBC Worldwide Ltd. executive Riccardo Donato joined A+E Networks' U.K. unit as director of distribution and digital partnerships, Digital TV Europe reported Jan. 30, citing a company statement. Additionally, Youngsun Soh joined A+E as general manager for A+E Networks South Korea. A+E is a joint venture of Walt Disney Co.'s Disney-ABC Television Group and Hearst Corp.
* Former Xiaomi Inc. global Vice President Hugo Barra is joining Facebook Inc. to lead its virtual reality efforts, including the Oculus VR Inc. team, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. Barra will serve as vice president of virtual reality at the social networking giant, Bloomberg News reported Jan. 25. He is expected to help popularize the Oculus Rift and Gear VR headsets, among other tasks.
Communications industry moves
* TDS Broadband Service LLC on Jan. 31 completed the acquisition of InterLinx Communications LLC and its subsidiary Tonaquint Networks LLC in southern Utah. Employees from Tonaquint Networks, InterLinx and TDS will operate out of the current InterLinx office space in St. George, Utah, according to a Feb. 1 news release. A transitional services agreement allows the companies to share information to migrate critical telecom infrastructure, processes and records. TDS Broadband Service is owned by Telephone and Data Systems Inc., and operated by TDS Telecom.
* Former CenturyLink Inc. executive Kenneth Wyatt joined Vonage Holdings Corp. as chief revenue officer of the company, according to a Jan. 31 news release. Wyatt will lead all of Vonage sales and operations globally, including the Nexmo sales organization, sales engineering, service delivery and account management.