Tanya Giles to Exit as Paramount Global’s Chief Programming Officer for Streaming

Christopher Vourlias Set to make history as the first African show to take part in Canneseries’ main competition, South African extreme sports action drama “Spinners” offers a gripping portrait of life in Cape Town’s hardscrabble Southside — and the latest sign of a growing push for shows from the Global South in the international TV industry. The series follows 17-year-old Ethan (Cantona James), who’s looking for a way out of the Southside’s bloody cycle of gang violence through spinning, a South African extreme motorsport that features drivers performing daredevil stunts — such as leaning out of windows or standing on the roof — while driving at high speeds.

The CW has tapped Roku Senior Director Ashley Hovey as its first chief digital officer, the network announced Tuesday.Hovey, who will begin responsibilities for the newly created role April 17, will oversee business strategy and day-to-day operations of the network’s digital operations and streaming platforms. She will report to The CW Network president Dennis Miller.After serving in roles across the entertainment industry at Comcast, where she served as senior director of advertising strategy and development, as well as British Telecom and Nielsen, Hovey joins the network from Roku, where she spent five years overseeing ad-supported business for The Roku Channel, encompassing both on-demand and FAST channel content as well as audience engagement and growth.In her role as a senior director at Roku, Hovey is credited with building and managing the Kids and Family, FAST, Music and Espacio Latino businesses, as well as driving overall partner strategy and monetization.“We are thrilled to have an all-star digital business strategist like Ashley Hovey join our senior leadership team,” Miller said in a statement. “Ashley is a trailblazer who knows what it takes to build a successful entertainment brand from the ground up and we look forward to having her play a vital role in helping us expand and monetize The CW Network’s digital footprint.”The CW App, which has logged over 92 million downloads to date, features the network’s primetime programming, livestream of sports content and other on-demand TV and film content.

The CW Network has named Ashley Hovey chief digital officer, a newly created position, starting April l7 reporting to President Dennis Miller.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The CW network has tapped Roku exec Ashley Hovey as the broadcaster’s first-ever chief digital officer. Per the the Nexstar-owned CW, in this new role, Hovey will be responsible for overseeing the business strategy and day-to-day operations of the network’s digital operations and OTT streaming platforms, including the CW App. An AVOD platform, the CW App has over 92 million downloads to date and serves as home of new episodes and seasons of the CW’s primetime programs, live streaming of its sports content and on-demand library. Hovey, who most recently served as senior director of the ad-supported business for The Roku Channel (TRC), including both on-demand and FAST channel content, will begin her duties at the CW April 17. She will report to Dennis Miller, president of the CW.

th Century Studios’ “Free Guy” and “Prey,” along with Disney+ hit series including “The Mandalorian,” “WandaVision,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and “Loki,” among many others. In all, Ayaz has led the campaigns for the most watched films on Disney+ and Hulu, and 13 of the top 15 box office debuts of all time, including six opening weekends over $200 million, as well as the biggest worldwide debut of all time for “Avengers: Endgame,” which earned over $1.2 billion in five days. An award-winning marketing leader, Ayaz has been the recipient of multiple industry honors, including Variety’s Marketing Visionaries Award and The Clio Marketing Mastermind Award.

Effective immediately, Walt Disney Studios President of Marketing and 18-year studio vet, Asad Ayaz, has been named the first-ever Chief Brand Officer of The Walt Disney Company.

EXCLUSIVE: Joseph Baena and Ludovica Frasca have joined the cast of Josh Webber’s family holiday film Athena Saves Christmas, which is currently shooting in California’s Lake Arrowhead area for a late 2023 release.

EXCLUSIVE: The ongoing changes at Showtime have reached the network’s development slate which has been cut down significantly, with a slew of projects getting a pass, I hear.

Disney has let go SVP and Chief Compliance Officer Alicia Schwarz, Deadline has learned, amid a major retrenchment at the company.

EXCLUSIVE: More changes at Paramount+: Tanya Giles, the streaming platform’s chief programming officer, is leaving after a combined 28 years at Paramount Global and its various iterations. A rep for Paramount+ confirmed Giles’ departure to Deadline, declining further comment. There is no immediate replacement, and Giles’ decision to step down is not part of a restructuring, sources said.

made Paramount+ competitive with longtime streaming giants like Netflix.The reason for Giles’ exit has not been disclosed.But Paramount has been beset by big changes in 2023 as the company seeks to streamline its streaming strategy.

Paramount Global has named Kristin Southey EVP, Investor Relations, effective immediately. She succeedes Anthony DiClemente, who will remain with the media company through mid-April to ensure a smooth transition.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Republic Pictures, an historic movie label founded in 1935 and shuttered in 1967, has been revived by parent company Paramount Global. The banner will function as an acquisitions play, releasing titles acquired by Paramount Global Content Distribution. “We’ve chosen to revitalize the Republic banner given its storied history of delivering popular movies to a global audience, ” said Dan Cohen, Paramount chief content licensing officer and newly-named president of Republic Pictures. “With our best-in-class global distribution teams working to identify the best homes around the world, we aim to continue that legacy by offering audiences great entertainment across all genres.”

Shari Lynette Carpenter, Miko Lim and Oscar Rene Lozoya have been selected to participate in the 2023-2025 Paramount Directors Initiative, Paramount Global announced on Thursday.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Three projects pitched at CPH:FORUM – the industry program of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen-based documentary festival – have been awarded cash prizes. They are Robin Petré’s “Only on Earth,” Iryna Tsilyk’s “Red Zone” and Yegor Troyanovsky’s “Cuba & Alaska.” The filmmakers were awarded at a ceremony in the Danish capital on Thursday. Petré’s “Only on Earth” garnered the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award worth €20,000 for best pitch. The docu, produced by Signe Skov Thomsen, and Malene Flindt Pedersen, depicts a journey deep into one of Europe’s hottest fire zones, Galicia, where wild horses roam the mountains under the watch of local cowboys. These horses are excellent at fire prevention, but now they are vanishing in the clash between humans and nature.

Bob Bakish, chief executive of Paramount Global, saw total compensation in 2022 of $32 million, up from $20 million the year before.

Paramount Global is shuffling its board of directors, including the addition of Dawn Ostroff, who will serve as an independent non-executive director, the company announced Friday. The filing also noted that Bob Bakish would be making $31.5 million.Ostoroff’s seat is pending a stockholder vote that will take place at Paramount’s 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders later this year. Bakish, who serves as Paramount Global’s president will be receiving a pay boost to $31.5 million as a result of $16 million stock awards grant.

William Earl Former Spotify, Conde Nast and CW executive Dawn Ostroff is set to join the board of directors for Paramount Global in May. Ostroff is poised to join the board as an independent director at Paramount Global’s annual meeting on May 8. Incumbent board members Candace Beinecke and Ronald Nelson will not stand for re-election at that meeting, which will bring the number of board members to 11, including Ostroff. “We are thrilled to welcome Dawn to Paramount’s Board at such an exciting moment in our evolution,” said Paramount Global chair Shari Redstone. “We believe her leadership, diverse expertise in content strategy and her long track record of driving transformation will prove invaluable as we seek to continue building on the success of Paramount’s global multiplatform strategy.”

Dawn Ostroff, a seasoned media executive who most recently served as chief content and advertising business officer at Spotify, will joining the Paramount Global board, the company announced today.

The Office is arguably the defining workplace comedy of the century.Adapted from the UK version created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, The Office is one of the most successful translations of a British sitcom to US shores. It became the longest-running adaptation of the show worldwide, spanning nine seasons on NBC from March 2005 to May 2013.The series stars Steve Carell as the boss of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, situated in Scranton, Pennsylvania.