ViacomCBS shuffles execs to focus on streaming

Pierluigi Gazzolo to step down and Kelly Day to take over as the company prepares to rebrand and expand Paramount+.
October 20, 2020

ViacomCBS Networks International (VCNI) is changing up its leadership and rebranding CBS All Access. The SVOD service, now known as Paramount+, will launch in new territories including Australia, Latin America and the Nordics in 2021.

Pierluigi Gazzolo is stepping down as VCNI’s president of streaming and studios at the end of this month to focus on other interests. In his decades-long tenure with the company, Gazzolo formed ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS) and secured its first sales to Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Kelly Day (pictured) will take over leadership of the division’s streaming business as president of streaming and COO of VCNI. In this new role, she will oversee the expansion of Pluto TV, as well as the international rollout of Paramount+.

Day will report to VCNI president and CEO David Lynn, working closely with Tom Ryan, president and CEO of ViacomCBS streaming. Day joined the team in 2017 as president of Viacom Digital Studios, and before that she held roles with Blue Ant Media, Awesomeness and Discovery.

President of VCN Americas JC Acosta, meanwhile, will take on additional responsibility in his new role as president of VIS. Before joining Viacom in 2007, Acosta worked at The Walt Disney Company, MGM Studios and NBCUniversal.

ViacomCBS announced the new name and global expansion plans for Paramount+ in September. The streamer will be home to  SpongeBob spinoff Kamp Koral and recent release The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. Currently, CBS All Access has a large slate of Nickelodeon content, as well as exclusive kids content from the likes of Boat Rocker and WildBrain.

VIS will feed original content onto Paramount+ in certain territories, and will continue to supply scripted, comedy and reality content to VCNI’s free- and pay-TV networks, third-party streamers and broadcasters.

About The Author

Search

Menu

Brand Menu