Overview
- Ray Hopkins, Skydance’s president of distribution, named Sarah Bergman and Mickey Carter joint executive vice presidents of distribution in a memo sent Tuesday and announced a new senior leadership group.
- The memo flagged eight senior departures drawn from the legacy Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery teams, including Rivka Golomb, Kelly Kane, Jeff Cross and Deena Demasi.
- Hopkins also appointed seven other leaders responsible for deal strategy, distribution finance, legal affairs, partner operations, marketing and CBS affiliate relations to run negotiations across broadcast, cable and streaming.
- The reorganization is an early move in a larger integration plan to help the company hit at least $6 billion in annualized savings while managing roughly $80 billion in combined debt, and it follows voluntary buyout offers to staff.
- Regulatory limits from a consent decree and the need to manage relationships with about 200 CBS stations and dozens of streaming and FAST channels mean the new team must balance rapid monetization with legal and affiliate constraints as further cuts are expected.