James Ackerman is an executive chairman of Broadway Systems, a firm that provides advertisement management software to cable networks. He provides guidance on the pay TV industry and helps set the company’s direction and product roadmap. He is also a strategic advisor to FilmBreak, an online platform that helps filmmaker’s actively build, engage, and monetize their audience before, during, and after the filmmaking process.  

Recently, Ackerman was president and CEO of the Documentary Channel (sold to Participant Media in late 2012 and converted into the new network Pivot) and served as CEO of OpenTV (now part of Nagra) from April 2001 and 2004. 

Before his tenure at OpenTV, Ackerman was with BSkyB, where he was CEO of British Interactive Broadcasting and was managing director of Sky Ventures. He founded Spinnaker Media in 2005, a company that holds or has held stakes in Documentary Channel, Propeller Consulting, Hear It First and Famplosion.