Showtime Promotes Tom Christie to President, Distribution and Biz Development

Showtime has promoted industry veteran Tom Christie to the newly created position of president, distribution, business development and network operations, it was announced Wednesday by Matthew C. Blank, chairman and CEO of Showtime Networks.

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Showtime Networks will also restructure its business units, with the retirement of evp and CFO Jerry Scro.

Christie, who has been with the network for nearly 25 years, will continue to lead Showtime Networks' affiliate sales team and beginning next year, will oversee planning and execution of future strategies and new business ventures, as well as broadcast operations. Under his leadership, Showtime Networks has increased subscribers 80 percent in the past nine years to 22 million.

"Tom Christie is one of the great distribution executives in on our industry," said Blank. "The emergence of new technologies and new distributor platforms offers both great opportunities and challenges for our networks, as we continue to build upon our success for many years to come. I couldn’t be more pleased that we have so many talented individuals among us to help lead what has become a legacy of innovation and great success at Showtime."

Christie previously served as evp affiliate sales at Showtime Networks since 2006.

Under the business units restructure, Showtime's president of entertainment David Nevins will serve as liaison to CBS Corps.' international and domestic distribution groups,generating incremental revenue streams for Showtime Networks-owned programming assets.

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