Showtime’s Tom Christie has been promoted to the newly created role of president, distribution, business development and network operations, said Matthew C. Blank, chairman and CEO of Showtime Networks Inc.
“Tom Christie is one of the great distribution executives in on our industry,” said Blank in a statement. “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.
With the retirement of Showtime’s long-time executive VP and CFO Jerry Scro, the company has realigned the structure of several business units. David Nevins, Showtime’s president of entertainment, now will serve in the key role of liaison to CBS Corp.’s international and domestic distribution groups, generating incremental revenue streams for Showtime-owned programming assets, which is expected to represent a significant portion of the company’s revenue growth over the next several years.
Under Christie’s leadership, the premium cable channel has grown 80 percent to in the past nine years to 22 million subscribers today. Since 2006, Christie has been the network’s executive VP of affiliate sales. He’s also been executive VP of sales and affiliate marketing for Sundance Channel and vp of national accounts, Western region, for Showtime Networks. Prior to that, he oversaw Showtime Network’s special markets department. Christie holds an A.B. from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from The Tuck School at Dartmouth College.
