SkyShowtime has made three new hires, tapping people from Disney, HBO Max and Netflix.
Hristina Georgieva will lead the Distribution & Partnerships function at SkyShowtime and will be responsible for all B2B revenue. In her new role, Georgieva will oversee and lead new business development and partnerships with cable, satellite, and telco distributors as well as platforms, device manufacturers, and other partners including retailers as well as consumer products and services.
Georgieva previously served as Vice President of Affiliate Distribution & Commercial Development at Disney for four years and was part of the team to launch Disney+ across EMEA, negotiating its first deals with cable, satellite, and telco partners including in many of SkyShowtime’s territories.
Prior to Disney, Georgieva held senior roles at Fox Networks Group and Discovery where she led pan-European commercial strategies, partnerships, and distribution. Georgieva will be based in London and join the SkyShowtime team later this year.
“I am excited to welcome Hristina to the SkyShowtime leadership team,” said SkyShowtime CEO Monty Sarhan. “Over her career, she has established an impressive track record as a skilled dealmaker. She is uniquely qualified to lead our Distribution & Partnerships function across Europe. With SkyShowtime now live across all markets, her extensive experience in expanding distribution and delivering revenue will help drive SkyShowtime’s next phase of growth.”
The new streaming service, which recently launched across over 20 European markets in just five months, continues to expand its teams across its offices in Amsterdam, Budapest, Denmark, London, Madrid, Stockholm, and Warsaw.
“I am thrilled to join SkyShowtime, particularly at such an exciting point of their adventure, having only recently completed their European rollout,” said Georgieva. “I am looking forward to working together with Monty and the SkyShowtime team to grow the business, forge new partnerships with distributors and partners, and help to bring their iconic, high-quality entertainment to more audiences.”
Sarhan also announced the appointment of two additional senior hires who will be joining SkyShowtime from other major streaming services. Both are part of the newly formed Strategy team and report directly to Chief Strategy Officer Roberto Soto, who joined SkyShowtime late last year from HBO Max.
Brett Horowitz has been named Vice President of Commercial Strategy, overseeing subscriber growth strategy across D2C and B2B segments and supporting the Marketing and Distribution & Partnerships teams. He joins SkyShowtime from HBO Max where he served in a number of roles including Head of Data, Insights, and Planning and, prior to that, was CFO of HBO Nordics for over seven years. He began his career in media and entertainment as a member of HBO’s finance team in New York.
Anazia Budhwar joins as Director of Content Strategy, working with SkyShowtime’s programming team to optimise acquisition and originals strategies and drive engagement. She joins from Netflix where she served as Strategy and Planning Lead for over three years. Prior to Netflix, she worked at NBCUniversal in London.
