Chief Executive Officer — Streaming Portfolio

The mandate

This global media group operates a portfolio of subscription and advertising-supported streaming services with valuable brands, content rights and customer reach. Headline subscribers have grown, but the economics underneath are uneven. Promotional cohorts behave differently from direct subscribers; content spending is committed years before audience evidence matures; distribution partners take material value; and advertising revenue depends on engagement that subscription teams have historically optimised differently. Portfolio reporting does not yet support the choices now required.

The board is appointing a Chief Executive Officer to reset the streaming portfolio around durable household and audience value. The CEO will own strategy, profit and loss, content allocation, product and technology priorities, monetisation, distribution, customer operations and organisation performance. Studio and rights leaders retain their creative and contractual authorities, but the CEO must make the economic consequence of each window, territory and service decision visible.

This planned succession is not a mandate to reduce content indiscriminately or chase quarterly churn. The group wants a leader who understands that a distinctive service needs investment, yet can distinguish cultural or franchise value from spending that does not build audience, pricing power or advertising yield. The CEO must be prepared to simplify the portfolio where overlapping propositions confuse customers and duplicate cost.

Scope and operating context

The hybrid appointment is anchored in Los Angeles and influences approximately 700 employees and material partners across the United States and a wider international region. The perimeter includes streaming strategy, service P&Ls, content planning, product, technology, growth, pricing, advertising, partnerships, customer care, data and operations. Interfaces with studios, sports or factual units, finance, legal, rights, corporate affairs and international businesses are substantial.

Subscriber economics differ by acquisition source, plan, device, geography, content affinity and tenure. A low-cost promotion can create long-lived value or attract viewers who leave immediately after one title. Bundles reduce visible churn but complicate revenue allocation and customer ownership. Advertising-supported tiers broaden reach while adding sales, measurement, privacy and ad-experience obligations.

Content creates portfolio-wide effects that cannot be captured by title-level viewing alone. A programme may acquire new households, retain a valuable cohort, support a franchise or create future licensing value. Conversely, high engagement may be concentrated among subscribers who would have stayed regardless. The CEO must establish a common decision language without pretending creative outcomes can be predicted mechanically.

First-year agenda

In the first one hundred days, the CEO will create a cohort and content-economic baseline. The team will reconcile acquisition, promotion, price, engagement, churn, reactivation, payment, care, advertising yield, distribution cost and content availability. Subscriber counts will be connected to contribution and cash by service and route to market, with uncertainty shown where allocation or identity is incomplete.

The executive will review the portfolio proposition. Each service and tier must have a clear audience need, brand promise, content role, monetisation model and reason to remain distinct. Overlap will be tested through customer behaviour, cost and strategic option value. Simplification may involve shared technology, bundle changes, brand consolidation, market withdrawal or a more explicit role for a niche service.

Content allocation will move to a slate-level framework. Greenlight authority remains with the relevant creative governance, while the streaming CEO provides audience, window, portfolio and monetisation evidence. Decisions will consider acquisition and retention potential, franchise value, territory rights, production cash, marketing, advertising, licensing alternatives and concentration. Post-release learning will change future allocations rather than serve as retrospective justification.

Pricing and promotion will be redesigned by cohort. The business will test willingness to pay, tier migration, annual plans, bundles and targeted offers while tracking long-term contribution and customer trust. Save activity must address the reason for leaving where possible; indiscriminate discounting that trains customers to cancel will be reduced. Price increases will be aligned with proposition and communication, not treated as automatic yield.

The advertising model will receive equal executive attention. Inventory growth must balance viewer experience, reach quality and demand. Product, sales and content teams will agree ad load, placement, frequency, measurement and category controls. The CEO will ensure privacy, suitability and separation standards are not weakened to close a campaign.

Technology priorities will focus on the moments that shape value: discovery, playback, identity, billing, advertising decisioning, experimentation and customer service. Major platform investment will require a clear portfolio outcome and adoption plan. Reliability and streaming quality will be managed by geography and device, because average availability hides experience that drives cancellation.

Distribution and bundle partnerships will be reviewed for economics, data, placement, customer control and exit. A partner may accelerate reach while limiting pricing or understanding of the audience. The CEO will renegotiate, expand or unwind arrangements based on lifetime value and strategic leverage rather than gross additions.

The operating model will be simplified around accountable service and portfolio decisions. Growth, content, product and finance teams must work from reconciled cohorts. Leaders whose incentives encourage local subscriber growth at portfolio expense will receive new measures. By year-end, the board expects clearer service roles, improved contribution trajectory and a funded path to sustainable cash performance.

Leadership responsibilities

The CEO will lead the streaming executive team and report to the group board and Group Chief Executive. They will present subscriber, content and advertising economics with equal candour, including where a strategic investment depresses near-term returns. Decisions that affect studio windows, talent commitments or group brands will be brought through the correct governance before public or customer promises are made.

They will create a constructive relationship between creative instinct and commercial evidence. Neither side will possess a veto by rhetoric. The CEO must enable ambitious work, insist on explicit portfolio intent and stop initiatives that no longer justify their opportunity cost. Senior talent and successors will be developed across creative, product, commercial and operational disciplines.

The role also carries responsibility for audience trust. Service failures, billing problems, inappropriate advertising and misuse of viewing data require direct executive ownership. Customer communication must be clear when plans, prices, libraries or service availability change.

Measures of success

The board will track contribution and cash by service, subscriber cohort value, acquisition cost, voluntary and involuntary churn, reactivation, plan mix and payment health. It will review engagement with content and profitability context, not as a standalone success metric.

Content measures include slate cost, audience reach, acquisition and retention contribution, franchise development, delivery and residual value. Advertising measures include yield, fill, reach, load, frequency and viewer consequence. Product measures cover discovery, playback, billing, experimentation and care. Organisational success includes decision speed, leadership depth and portfolio collaboration.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring more than 28 years across streaming, subscription media, entertainment, consumer technology or another scaled digital-content business. They must have run a substantial P&L and made consequential choices across content, product, pricing and distribution. Experience with both subscription and advertising models is strongly preferred.

The board will seek examples of simplifying a service portfolio, changing a content allocation after cohort evidence and improving contribution without hollowing out the audience proposition. Candidates should understand rights and windows, subscriber analytics, advertising technology, platform reliability, partnerships and global localisation.

The successful CEO will respect creative risk while demanding economic clarity. They must be comfortable telling a board what cannot be known, making a bounded bet and learning quickly. Credibility with creators, engineers, advertisers, distribution partners and investors is essential.

Compensation and appointment terms

The expected base range is USD 500,000–750,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation. Reward will balance sustainable subscriber value, advertising quality, content stewardship, cash performance and leadership. Final terms will reflect prior portfolio scale, international experience and treatment of verified forfeited awards.

Confidentiality

The group remains unnamed because slate decisions, subscriber economics, distribution terms and portfolio options are market-sensitive. Detailed information will be shared only after identity, conflict and confidentiality review. Applicants must not submit viewer records, unreleased slate information, talent terms or proprietary partner economics from another organisation.