Company Launches & Partnerships
Endemol Beyond USA has started Smasher, a new digital eSports network. The network is available on YouTube and other platforms. Smasher produces several original series, including eSports competition show Legends of Gaming, which debuted yesterday.
Sports-focused digital consulting firm Omnigon has joined forces with sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media. Together they will develop digital solutions and digital monetization strategies for clients.
Orange Digital Ventures, a digital VC company owned by French telecommunications group Orange, is investing in Afrostream, an SVOD platform focusing on African, African American, and African Caribbean TV and movies. The move will help Afrostream expand its service in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and South America. Other investors included TheFamily, Cross Culture Ventures I, L.P., and ACE & Company.
Shutterstock, the stock photography and footage provider has partnered with Red Bull Media House on an exclusive distribution deal. Shutterstock will market and license thousands of aerial, time-lapse, slow motion, adventure, wildlife, and landscape videos, filmed with advanced camera technology and presented in high-quality HD and 4K Ultra HD. The companies have also teamed up to launch Point of View, a content effort to distribute and co-market video highlights featuring Red Bull Media House-partnered athletes who will explore extreme environments.
Univision Deportes, the multimedia sports division of Univision Communications Inc. (UCI), announced that it has joined forces with the NBA to launch NBA.com/enebea, the NBA’s official digital Spanish-language destination. The website has live game updates, post-game highlights, and a range of stats on each player and team in the league. It also features exclusive content for Hispanic NBA fans.
DC Comics, Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Mattel and Lego have teamed up to launch DCSuperHeroGirls.com, a website showcasing superheroines ranging from WonderWoman to BatGirl. The site will include stories, quizzes, games, and a new digital animated series aimed at girls six to 12 years old. The series’ first episode, Welcome to Super Hero High, premiered October 1, with new episodes to air weekly.
US-based TV channel Eurocinema announced the launch of Eurocinema World, a live channel and SVOD service. The channel will have acclaimed European films and Euro-centric lifestyle content and launch in early 2016, in the US, Latin America, Asia, and Europe.
Film
Robert Walak will not renew his contract as the London-based President/Managing Director Europe, Production, Acquisitions and Television at the Weinstein Company.
Brad Grey will continue as Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures into 2020 as his contract has been extended.
Lisa Layer has been upped from Assistant Executive Director to Associate Western Executive Director at Directors Guild of America.
Alexis Alexanian is now the President of Production at Locomotive. She was formerly a Co-Producer of Maggie’s Plan.
Jeff Deutchman has been promoted from VP to SVP of Acquisitions & Productions at Alchemy. Brooke Ford is now the EVP of Acquisitions & Productions in addition to Marketing at Alchemy. Scott Guthrie is now the COO of Alchemy. He was previously the COO of Kizzang Sweepstakes in Las Vegas.
Kevin McKeon is now a Creative Executive at The Firm. He was previously the Creative Executive at Relativity Media.
John Partilla is now the CEO of Screenvision. He was previously the CEO of Olson and EVP of Digital Services Group at ICF International.
TV
Dick Costolo is now a consultant on HBO’s comedy Silicon Valley. Previously he was the CEO of Twitter.
Deborah Barak will now be President of Business Operations in addition to the EVP of Business Operations at CBS Network Television Entertainment Group. She will report directly to Leslie Moonves, President and CEO, CBS Corporation. This year, Deborah marks her 30th year at CBS.
Mallory Jaffe is now a Coordinator of Original Series Development at Disney Channel. Mallory was formerly the Creative Executive at AwesomenessTV.
Brooke Karzen has been named the EVP of Alternative Programming & Development at Warner Horizon Television. She was formerly the SVP of Alternative Programming at Warner Horizon Television.
Rob Lee has been named the President of Non-Scripted Programming at Keshet Studios in addition to his role as Founder, President at Bayonne Entertainment.
Sean Atkins has been named the President of MTV. He was previously the General Manager, EVP, Digital Media & Strategy at Discovery Communications.
Deborah Barak has been named the President of Business Operations at CBS Entertainment, CBS Television Studios & CBS News. She was formerly the EVP of Business Operations at CBS Network Television Entertainment Group.
Nichole Bardin has been named the Senior Director, Talent & Development at Megalomedia. She was formerly the Senior Director of Development at Sirens Media.
Dafna Linzer has been named the Managing Editor of Politics for NBC News and MSNBC, and will play a key role in driving coverage across the two networks. In this newly-created position, she will help maximize the many opportunities and competitive advantages arising from the combination of our resources, expertise, experience and deep bench of talent on all things politics. Previously, Dafna joined MSNBC in 2013 as Managing Editor of MSNBC digital, following a series of award-winning assignments.
Nora Skinner has been hired by HBO as the new SVP of HBO Programming. In her new role she will oversee the development and production of current and new original drama series, working with drama execs David Levine and Francesca Orsi. Previously she was the EVP of Production and Development at Indian Paintbrush and an executive producer on the Sundance 2015 Grand Jury Prize Winner Me And Earl And The Dying Girl and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
Mark Ambrose has been named the VP of Talent at Marvel Television. He was previously the VP of Drama Development at 20th Century Fox Television.
Phil Craig is now an Independent Producer. He was previously the EVP of Chief Creative Officer at Discovery Networks International.
Amy Doyle has been upped from EVP of Music & Talent at MTV and VH1 to the EVP, VH1 & Logo.
Dany Meloul has been named the VP of Programming, French-Language TV at Bell Media. Dany was previously the Assistant General Counsel at Bell Media.
Mike Nunes has been upped from Director to the VP of Current Programming at NBC Entertainment.
Denis O’Connor has been named the Head of Unscripted Programming & Development at Buccaneer Media. He was previously the Creative Director at Big Brother Programming, Initial.
Jennifer Sarlin has been named the SVP of Marketing of TLC. She was formerly the Owner, Creative Director at Benzo Creative.
Alex Villalta has been named the Manager of Creative Affairs at TriStar Television. He was previously the Executive Assistant to Tom Rothman at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Teri Weiss has been named the SVP, Head of Kids/Family Development & Production at Universal Kids Productions. Teri was previously the EVP of Original Programming, Preschool Division at Nickelodeon.
Brandon Zimon has been named the SVP of International Television Sales & Co-Productions at Skydance Media. He was previously the VP of International Distribution at Sony Pictures Television.
Management, PR, Agencies
Due to the Relativity Chapter 11 ruling, there has been a major shake-up at Relativity Sports. President of Relativity Sports Happy Walters along with CFO Andrew Matthews and Co-Chief Operating Officer Greg Shamo have been let go. Founding board member Ron Burkle, who founded The Yucaipa Companies, will now be the Chairman of the Board and has committed $30 million of growth capital to develop the agency. All senior baseball agents have renewed their agreements with Relativity Sports. Two junior agents have resigned. Relativity Sports currently represents 400 athletes in the NBA, NFL and MLB and has plans to add management personnel. Relativity Chapter 11 ruling
Niki Montazaran is now an Agent of Motion Picture Literary at ICM Partners. She was formerly a Coordinator of Feature Literary at Paradigm.
Jelani Johnson has been hired by CAA as an agent in their Motion Picture Literary department. Previously Johnson founded management and production shingle The Mission Entertainment, specializing in repping diversity talent.
Adam Weinstein has been named a Partner at Verve. His clients include writer-director Colin Trevorrow and writer Derek Connolly. Prior to joining Verve he began his career in 2002 at UTA where he started as a talent agent trainee.
Music, Digital, Publishing, Misc.
Somasgear has left Microsoft and his position as VP of their Development Division after 27 years at the company. He previously oversaw the engineering of the company’s developer tools and services, programming languages, and runtimes.
Michael Kamprath has been named the CFO of video intelligence platform, Tubular Labs. He was previously VP of Engineering at Quantcast.
Kevin Arrix has been named the Chief Revenue Officer at location-based mobile advertising company Verve. Formerly, he served as EVP of Worldwide Brand Partnerships at SFX Entertainment.
Michael Barra is now the President of Media & Entertainment at The Araca Group. He was previously the CEO of Stageworks Media.
Steve Bellamy is now the President of Motion Picture & Entertainment at Kodak. He was previously the Chairman, CEO at The Ski Channel & The Surf Channel.
Dea Lawrence is now the CMO of Variety. She was formerly the VP of Western Region at TubeMogul.
Jennifer Harkness is now the SVP of Sales & Development at Cream Productions. She was formerly the Co-Founder of Jumpwire Media.