INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Following the merger of CBS and Viacom announced earlier this year, the combined company today confirmed its plans to restructure its
content and digital leadership teams in order to streamline operations
Among the changes, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, are the departures of Comedy Central head Kent Alterman
and Viacom Networks COO Sarah Levy
Meanwhile, CBS Chief Creative Officer David Nevins will add BET to his responsibilities, while president of MTV, VH1, CMT and Logo Chris
McCarthy, will now become president of Entertainment - Youth Brands, ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks.
This will put McCarthy in charge of
Comedy Central, Paramount Network, Smithsonian Channel and TV Land brands.
Nevins, in addition to BET, will oversee CBS Television Studios,
the CBS Television Network Entertainment division, the Showtime Networks, Pop, The CW and the programming of streaming service CBS All
Access.
In terms of children content, Nickelodeon President Brian Robbins will oversee kids and young adult-focused programming as
president, Kids - Family Entertainment, ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks
That puts him back in charge of Awesomeness, which he co-founded and sold to Viacom in 2018, in addition to Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Nick
Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons and Nickelodeon Studios.
ViacomCBS also said that Carolyn Kroll Reidy will continue her role as president and chief
executive officer of Simon - Schuster, Inc
And Jim Gianopulos will continue as chairman and chief executive officer of Paramount Pictures, a role that includes oversight of Paramount
Animation, Paramount Features, Paramount Players and Paramount TV.
The exec shuffles follow other announcements about the combinations of
the two companies& advertising sales and content distribution teams.
In addition, the company had previously announced Joe Ianniello would
serve as chairman and CEO of CBS, which includes oversight of CBS Television Network (including CBS Entertainment, CBS News and CBS Sports),
CBS Television Studios, CBS Interactive (including CBS All Access) and CBS Television Stations
However, he lost oversight of Showtime and Pop TV to president and CEO of Viacom and ViacomCBS, Bob Bakish.
Also previously reported was
that CBS Interactive chief Jim Lanzone had left for Benchmark Capital, to be replaced by Marc DeBevoise
This puts DeBevoise in charge of digital operations, in his new role as President and CEO of CBS Interactive and Chief Digital Officer of
He will report to Bakish.
Viacom Digital Studios Kelly Day will continue in her role and report to DeBevoise, the company also said today
And CBS CTO Phil Wiser will become ViacomCBS CTO.
The free streaming service Pluto TV, headed by co-founder Tom Ryan, will report to Bakish
(In news unrelated to the exec changes, Pluto TV announced today it will start streaming music videos from Vevo across 10 new
channels.)
These leadership changes are meant to consolidate operations while keeping the production arms of CBS Television Studios and
Viacom counterpart, Paramount Television, separated, The WSJ said.
Beyond the exec shuffle itself, ViacomCBS also detailed how it plans to
maximize its combined assets
The company announced this morning it putting into place a new &Content Council& that will work to &maximize the use of IP and talent
relationships& across the company
The council will be chaired by Nevins and include all the content leaders.
&ViacomCBS will be one of the largest premium content creators in
the world, with the capacity to produce content for both our own platforms and for others,& said president and CEO of ViacomCBS Bob Bakish,
&This talented team of content leaders will work together to ensure we realize the full power of our brands, our deep relationships with the
creative community and our intellectual property to drive our growth as a combined company,& he added.
The Viacom-CBS merger is expected to
