Sports TV leaders Chris Ohlmeyer, Lou Kusserow set up production company in Austin
Two powerhouses in the sports TV business have formed an Austin-based production company.
Chris Ohlmeyer (at left in photo), a longtime producer and director at ESPN, and Lou Kusserow (at right in photo), executive producer for Tulsa, Okla.-based Winnercomm Inc. from 2007 to 2010, have banded together to create Ohlmeyer Kusserow Group LLC.
Ohlmeyer Kusserow Group’s Austin office is at 1250 S. Capital of Texas Highway. Ohlmeyer is the firm’s manager partner and executive producer. Kusserow is partner and president of production and development.
Ohlmeyer, an alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin who has lived for several years in West Austin, and Kusserow have more than 40 years of combined broadcast experience. The firm will focus on sports TV shows but also will produce entertainment, documentary and Internet content.
“The goal with OKG is to provide high-quality productions at affordable prices,” Ohlmeyer says. “In the current marketplace, there is a need for packagers who can deliver network quality without the network price tag.”
Kusserow says: “Our producing and directing experience spans the broadcast landscape. Chris has produced the British Open, I have directed the U.S. Open in tennis, but we both gained our experience on small-budget college sports where the goal was always to make more with less.”
Ohlmeyer and Kusserow are second-generation sports producers. Ohlmeyer is the son of legendary sports producer Don Ohlmeyer, and Kusserow is the son of sports TV pioneer Lou Kusserow, who died in 2001.
“We share the common experience of having grown up in this business and of choosing to follow in our fathers’ footsteps,” Ohlmeyer says. “We both look at it as an honor to carry on our family name into this next venture.”
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