Liguori out as Discovery Communications COO

Peter Liguori, Discovery Communications COO and, for several months earlier this year, the man in charge of the Oprah Winfrey Network, will be leaving the company at the end of the year. Liguori's bailiwick has been the company's joint ventures -- OWN with Oprah, kidnet The Hub with Hasbro, and 3net with Sony and IMAX. Liguori has held many high-level positions in the cable industry, including prexy and CEO of FX and senior VP of marketing at HBO. He also served as chairman of entertainment for the Fox network. Liguori said that his tenure at Discovery had been "incredibly rewarding" in a press release issued Wednesday. "It has been a privilege to have contributed to Discovery's mission and to have helped so many networks and brands grow their ambition and accelerate their creative momentum," Liguori said. "My best to all the wonderful members of the senior management team and, in particular, to the employees at all levels of the organization who come in every day thinking of the new idea, the story that hasn't been told yet." Discovery Communications prexy and CEO David Zaslav praised Liguori for his "enthusiasm and creative vision" and thanked him for tackling "some pretty challenging assignments, including the launches of our joint ventures." Contact Sam Thielman at sam.thielman@variety.com