Skydance distribution chief Ray Hopkins pairs a WBD and a Paramount deputy as eight execs exit

Carriage deals are the plumbing of a media company: rarely in the headlines, yet the place where two merged giants overlap most directly. Both Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery spent years negotiating with the same cable operators and streaming platforms. Now that they sit inside one company, David Ellison’s Skydance has decided how to merge those two negotiating rooms, by putting one deputy from each side at the top and letting eight senior executives go.

The structure comes from an internal memo by Ray Hopkins, the longtime CBS executive who is now Skydance’s president of distribution. Deadline’s Dade Hayes, following a Reuters scoop, frames it as the latest in a run of post-merger organizational announcements. Hopkins’ two top lieutenants, Sarah Bergman and Mickey Carter, will share the title of executive vice president of distribution and split responsibility for negotiating carriage agreements and managing partners. Bergman, an HBO veteran, was most recently WBD’s EVP of networks and streaming distribution. Carter was EVP of distribution at Paramount.

The even split reflects what the team now sells. According to Variety, the distribution group handles deals for the CBS owned-and-operated stations, 55 basic cable networks, Paramount+, HBO Max, Discovery+, Pluto TV and more than 100 FAST channels, the free ad-supported streaming feeds.

The exits are balanced too, with four from each legacy company. From WBD, Rivka Golomb (head of distribution strategy and finance), Kelly Kane (SVP, partner marketing) and Rich Palermo (EVP, network and streaming distribution) are leaving, along with Jeff Cross, EVP of legal, distribution and commercial partnerships, who will stay on as a senior adviser. From the Paramount side, CBS affiliate executives David Comisar and Kurt Davis depart, as do Deena Demasi, Paramount’s EVP of marketing, distribution and business development, and Ken Kay, Showtime’s EVP of distribution and affiliate marketing.

Brad Shipley, EVP of business development and strategy, takes Pluto TV and FAST distribution plus advanced advertising partnerships, and leads distribution for Skydance Global Sports Group. Patrick Cavanaugh runs distribution finance as EVP and CFO. Rick Baker, a Paramount deputy general counsel, absorbs Cross’s business and legal affairs remit. Bob Aguanno will manage relations with roughly 200 CBS affiliate stations, alongside Joe Bahr, Andrew Borak and John Bagwell.

Hopkins reports to JB Perrette, the former WBD streaming chief who is now co-chair and chief business officer of Skydance TV and Skydance Direct-to-Consumer. Scott Miller, WBD’s president of networks and streaming distribution, left the company when Hopkins was appointed. The merger closed on Oct. 6, and Bergman and Carter are due to finalize their teams in the coming weeks.

The memo lands inside a much larger squeeze. Skydance has targeted $6 billion in annualized savings from the combination, Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz offered eligible staff voluntary buyouts in an Oct. 26 memo, and Variety reports that mass layoffs are expected before the end of the year. For eight distribution veterans, that future has already arrived.

Tags: David Ellison, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, executive-move, Skydance, JB Perrette