When the Skydance C-suite featuring Davis Ellison’s key lieutenants began unveiling last week, the international piece of the puzzle was left largely unresolved.
The list of senior executives does not answer the question of who will oversee the legacy Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)’s significant presence outside the US, which includes streaming, TV networks like the UK’s 5 and Australia’s Network Ten, and hundreds of employees around the world in distribution of some of the biggest film franchises and TV shows.
Many of the international insiders we spoke to last week felt lost and none the wiser after Wednesday’s incident at Ellison Town Hall. “Everyone is in the dark at the moment, and I think that’s probably true of almost everyone globally,” one such Warner insider said late in the day.
Gradually over the past few days the question has been answered, at least in terms of the top of the chain, but with some caveats.
JB Perrette, one of the big winners from the $110 billion merger, will work on streaming and networks outside the US in his new roles: Co-President and Chief Business Officer, Skydance TV and Co-President and Chief Business Officer, Skydance Direct-to-Consumer. The insider we spoke to described his role as one of the most important in the new-look Skydance, given the scope of the role.
Perrette is well-known in international circles and has spent considerable time abroad over the past 15 years, first at Discovery where he rose to President and CEO of Discovery Networks International, and then at the merged WBD, where in the role of President and CEO of Global Streaming and Games he led the global rollout of HBO Max while, for example, navigating the complex exit of HBO’s long-term output deal with Sky in the UK, Germany and Italy. This has now been resolved and HBO Max is busy producing worldwide and commissioning local originals under Sarah Aubrey and a team of commissioners in different countries.
Sales and free-to-air chief installed
Perrett’s new role technically covers global distribution, but it’ll be his trusty new lieutenant, David Dekker, who’s at the coalface in this particular one, as he’s worked his way up to president of content sales, buying big franchises from the Paramount and Warner libraries. NCIS, The Big Bang Theory, the Bachelor And star trek Worldwide.
Times are good for former WBD content sales boss Decker, with the biggest international TV market of the year, MIPCOM Cannes, well underway. He’s had a very busy schedule this week as buyers look into the ways of the new Skydance content sales team, and we hear he’s encouraging a business as usual approach with his sellers.
Decker is one of Perrette’s three new reports, along with chief revenue officer Jay Askinasi and distribution president Ray Hopkins. Yet the important roles of Perrette and Dekker still leave gaps – a bit below the international series, questions remain about how the fields are divided and who looks after what.
We can reveal today that CBS chief operating officer Brian Rubin is at least temporarily taking charge of free-to-air Network 5 and Network Ten, although a more permanent future for these nets is expected to be announced in the next few weeks.
Rubin, who has been CBS’ COO and CFO since 2020, reports into new Skydance TV boss George Cheeks.
With more announcements expected soon, it could well be that Perrette, Rubin and company are planning to install a long-term head of the free-to-air network or a separate head of international streaming (those in the frame could include people like Paramount+ EVP Marco Nobili and 5 boss Rima Sakan), while it remains to be seen how the world will be divided up in terms of territory.
A week is a long time in the world of entertainment and just a few days ago it seemed like things could have gone very differently. It initially appeared that there would be a direct contest for the top international job between Paramount’s Kevin McClellan and WBD’s long-serving Gerhard Zeiler.
However, Zeiler has lofty political ambitions, including becoming chancellor of his native Austria, and both Zeiler and McClellan have now confirmed their exit. McClellan came just weeks after detailing at a London conference how Ellison had sold him the Skydance dream. This is the way of C-suite politics.
Meanwhile, the deeper concerns raised by Ellison’s planned $6b of synergies are certainly being echoed internationally and the sources we spoke to are quietly aware that big changes could be in store. As MIPCOM enters its second day, more international clarity is needed after a week that will go down in the annals of entertainment industry history.
Skydance declined to comment.