Former Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin Returns to Media Business

12:00 AM PST 11/9/2010 by Paul Bond

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The executive, who has been running a holistic mental health institute since exiting TW in 2002, will serve as senior adviser to the on-demand service Oasis TV, then become board chairman after a round of financing closes.

Gerald Levin is getting back into the media business, though in a far more subdued manner than before.

Levin, who once brokered controversial megadeals as CEO of Time Warner, is set to announce Tuesday that he has joined Oasis TV as a senior adviser. He'll become the company's chairman of its board of directors once a series-A round of financing closes.

Since exiting TW in 2002 after the merger with AOL wiped out $200 billion in value for TW shareholders, Levin has been director of Moonview Sanctuary, an exclusive, holistic mental health institute in Santa Monica whose clientele are no doubt fans of Oasis TV: a boutique cable channel that focuses on programming for the rejuvenation of the mind, body and spirit.

Levin and Oasis TV also are discussing the creation of some sort of programming that would incorporate Moonview Sanctuary, Oasis TV founder and CEO Robert Schnitzer said.

Oasis TV is available on-demand in 9.9 million cable and satellite TV households, and it recently changed its business model to offer 90% of its content for free.

"Oasis TV values all viewers, regardless of income, education or age," Schnitzer said. "The so-called 'spa crowd' is a huge market for us, but so are unemployed single parents seeking to raise their children in a lifestyle that is natural, holistic and environmentally sound."