M+E Daily
Paramount Folds Digital Operations Into ‘Home Media Distribution’ Unit
Story Highlights
Paramount established a dedicated digital entertainment unit years before DVD sales peaked. Now, amidst tapering physical media markets and consolidation of Hollywood’s home entertainment business, the studio is folding its digital licensing operations into a newly created “Home Media Distribution” organization.
Under the new structure, a single corporate entity will oversee Paramount’s home entertainment, digital licensing, and television licensing activities worldwide. The executive shuffle includes:
• Dennis Maguire, who has led Paramount’s worldwide DVD and Blu-ray business for nearly two years (via the Los Angeles Times), is named President, Worldwide Home Media Distribution.
• Hal Richardson, who currently oversees the studio’s pay-per-view and video-on-demand extensions as President of Worldwide Television Distribution, advances to President, Home Media Distribution, reporting to Maguire.
• Amy Powell, Paramount’s Executive Vice President of Interactive Entertainment, adds the creation of content for digital and online games to her responsibilities, while LeeAnne Stables, the studio’s current Executive Vice President, Worldwide Marketing Partnerships, will oversee licensing of traditional video games.
• Tom Lesinski, longtime president of Paramount Digital Entertainment, is exiting the studio.
Fellow Viacom division Nickelodeon is in the midst of similar shakeup: earlier this month, Leigh Anne Brodsky left her position as president of Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products, as the division announced it would be integrating licensing of its properties into its ad sales, marketing, and digital operations (via The Licensing Letter).
Paramount chairman Brad Grey, in an internal memo to the employees on Tuesday, expressed his hope that the new structure “will allow us to be more flexible and to best capitalize on all opportunities across the breadth of the studio” (via The Wrap).
More on the reorganization at Deadline Hollywood, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety.
