Company Launches & Partnerships
Time Inc. has acquired HelloGiggles, a digital lifestyle publishing start-up for women, co-founded by New Girl actress Zooey Deschanel. The Wall Street Journal reports Time paid an estimated $20 million for the company.
Interactive entertainment company Activision Blizzard has launched a new eSports division. Steve Bornstein, who previously served as CEO of both ESPN and NFL Network, will serve as Chairman of the new division. Activision has nabbed Mike Sepso, the former president of Major League Gaming, to serve as SVP for eSports.
Production studio The Uprising Creative is launching Vehiclevr, a virtual reality content studio. Vehicle will specialize in the production and direction of branded and original VR content and supply production services to partner companies working in VR. Uprising co-founder Jeff Nicholas has been tapped as their Managing Director and Head of Development. Uprising formerly worked on VR projects with partners including CBS Interactive.
WME | IMG has partnered with AGT to build an as-of-yet unnamed platform that enhances the value of consumer’s live event experience with personalized real time offsite and onsite content and engagement. The new platform is planned for an early 2016 release. Events and content will be handled by WME | IMG and the engineers and data will come from AGT.
Universal Sports Network, with its main focus as the Olympic sports channel co-owned by InterMedia Partners and NBCUniversal, is closing November 16. NBCU, which holds an 8% stake in the channel, will pick up USN’s rights to the Olympic sports through 2032.
Film
Production and finance company Macro has nabbed producer Kim Roth as President of Production to handle the slate of film and TV projects that continues to ramp up since its launch earlier this year. Roth previously spent 16 years at Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment.
David Burg has been upped to SVP, Associate General Counsel at Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. The former Weissmann, Wolff, Bergman, Coleman, Grodin & Evall attorney will report directly to General Counsel Clarissa Weirick.
Robert Walak has joined Universal Pictures International Productions as Co-managing Director. Prior to Universal, Walak worked at The Weinstein Company, acquiring titles including Carol, Macbeth, Paddington and The Imitation Game.
Louise Chater has been named the EVP, International Strategy & Research overseeing all international theatrical market research efforts for Sony Pictures Entertainment. She will report to international marketing chief Michael Horn and work with John Restall, who handles domestic market research. Prior to Sony Chater spent two years at Clarius Entertainment, where she oversaw the film company’s strategy, acquisitions, and slate development.
Grady Gamble is now the COO and CFO at Adaptive Studios. He was previously the Executive Director of Strategic Planning & Business Development at Paramount Pictures.
Magnolia Pictures has also promoted Scott Veltri to VP of International Sales. He previously served as the International Sales Director. Robert Maylor has been upped to his role of Director of International Sales. He was previously the Manager of International Sales at the company. Veltri joined Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Releasing in 2010 and held positions in marketing and acquisitions before moving in to international sales. Maylor joined Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Releasing in 2013 after completing his M.F.A in the Peter Stark producing program at USC’s school of cinematic arts.
Matt Alvarez is now the In-House Producer at Broad Green Pictures. He was previously the EVP of Production and President of the Multicultural Division at Relativity Media. Ella Robinson is now the VP of East Coast Publicity at Broad Green Pictures in New York. She was formerly the SVP, DKC Public Relations.
Rowan Riley is now the VP of Development & Production at Burn Later Productions. He was previously the Producer at Anonymous Content.
Scott Veltri is now the VP of International Sales at Magnolia Pictures in New York. He was previously the Director of International Sales at that company.
TV
FX Networks has upped Gina Balian, Nicole Clemens and Jonathan Frank, to the title of EVP. Balian will continue to handle the strategic development and production of original limited series. Clemens will continue to handle the strategic development of new drama and comedy series. Previously, Clemens was a partner and head of the motion picture literary department of ICM Partners. In his new position, Frank will handle all facets of day-to-day production for the entire slate of FX Networks’ original programming. Before FX, Frank was with Mark Johnson Productions as head of television development.
TV Producer Jimmy Desmarais, best known for French TV series including Panthers and The Returned, has been named the Co-CEO of Atlantique Productions. Atlantique, which is owned by Lagardere Studios, has produced TV series including Transporter and Borgia. Olivier Bibas will serve as Atlantique’s other co-CEO.
Henry Ahn is now the President of Content Distribution & Marketing at Scripps Networks Interactive. He was previously the EVP of Content Distribution & Marketing at Scripps Networks Interactive.
Karen Leever is now the EVP, General Manager of Digital Media at Discovery Communications in New York. She was formerly the SVP of Digital & Direct Sales at DirecTV.
Sergio Alfaro has been named the CEO at Eclipse TV. He was previously the SVP at Pink Sneakers Productions.
Amy Reisenbach has been upped from VP to the SVP of Current Programs at CBS Entertainment and CBS Television Studios. Bridget Wiley has been upped from SVP of Current Programs to the EVP of Current Programs at CBS Entertainment and CBS Television Studios.
Dan Tischler has been named the Head of Development at Rooney McP Productions. He was previously an Independent Producer.
Kelly Webb-Lamb will begin pursuing other opportunities at the end of 2015. She was formerly the Managing Director at Shine TV in London.
The CBC, Canda’s public broadcaster, has nabbed Chris Harris as their new Executive Producer of Digital Scripted Content. Prior to CBC, Harris served as VP of Strategy and Business Development at Secret Location, a Canadian digital content studio.
Jeremy Chilnick has been upped from Partner to the COO at Warrior Poets in New York.
Lucilla D’Agostino has been named the EVP of Current Programming & Development at Sirens Media in New York. She was formerly the SVP of Current Programming at Sirens Media.
Brian Dale has been upped from Development Producer to the VP of Digital Development at Thinkfactory Media. Erika Wadler has been upped from Director of Development to the VP of Unscripted Development at Thinkfactory Media.
Tina Exarhos is now pursuing other opportunities. She was formerly the EVP of Marketing & Creative at MTV in New York.
Saul Goldberg has been named the VP, Head of Unscripted Television at Covert Media. He was previously the Development Executive at Electus.
Andrew Marcus has been named the President at Relativity Television. He was previously the Managing Director at Relativity Television.
Management, PR, Agencies
Luber Roklin Entertainment has upped Ryan Lewis Tunick and Rob Saunders both to manager. Tunick previously worked in WME’s talent department for three years before Luber Roklin. Saunders was previously with MGMT management before Luber Roklin. Luber Roklin’s client list includes Olivia Cooke, Stephen Moyer, Shane West, Ryan Guzman and Hayden Christensen, among others.
David Anderson has been snagged by UTA to be an executive in their Digital Media department. He hails from the Los Angeles office of brand consultancy firm MediaLink, where his clients included Conde Nast, Twitter, Hulu and Funny or Die.
Chris Goble is now the SVP of TV Production & Development at Automatik. He was previously a Lit Manager at Grandview.
Ross Weiner is now an Agent of Theater at ICM Partners in New York. He was previously the Agent of Theater Literary at Paradigm.
Lori York is now pursuing other opportunities She was formerly a Partner of International TV & Media at ICM Partners in New York.
Music, Digital, Publishing, Misc.
GoPro has hired Bill McCullough to serve as an Executive Producer for GoPro’s motor sports and team sports channels. Previously, he served as VP of Creative Development and Operations for HBO Sports.
YouTube video marketing company Pixability has nabbed John Baker as its Chief Data Scientist. Prior he served as founder, CEO and Chief Scientist at DataKin.
Video ad marketplace Tremor Video has named John Walsh as its CTO. Formerly, Walsh served as Chief Technology Officer at CareCloud. Company co-founder and now-former CTO Steven Lee will continue to act as a senior advisor to Tremor.
Digital video company JW Player has hired Brent Wood, previously the Head of Consumer Web and Mobile Engineering at Bloomberg LP to serve as CTO. Rick Okin, previously the CTO of Integral Ad Science, will be the VP of Data.
Video supply side platform Altitude Digital has named Toby Gabriner to its Board of Directors. Garbiner previously was CEO of AOL’s programmatic video advertising platform Adap.tv. He currently serves as CEO of social music platform MAGNIFI.
Delia Rodriguez has been nabbed by Univision Digital as Deputy Managing Editor for Audience Engagement. She will handle Univision Digital’s editorial strategy to drive audience engagement.
Trevor Burkins is now the Senior Media Strategist at M Booth in New York. He was previously the Communications Associate at NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.
David Haddad has been upped from EVP, General Manager to President at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
Jason Ziemianski and Gayle Gilman have Co-Founded Ripple Entertainment. Gilman will act at CEO and was formerly the EVP of Digital Content at FremantleMedia North America. Ziemianski will act as Chief Revenue Officer and was previously the VP of Digital Partnerships & Cross-Platform Strategy at FremantleMedia North America.
Adam Lewinson is now the SVP of Programming, Marketing & Operations at Crackle. He was previously the SVP of Programming & Production at FX Networks.
Max Hole is now pursuing other opportunities. He was previously the Chairman and CEO at Universal Music Group International in London.