AMC Networks on Tuesday announced that CEO Christina Spade had “stepped down” from her post after just four months on the job.

The company said its board of directors “is currently finalizing who it will name as a replacement, with an announcement to follow.”

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said Spade will receive the severance benefits payable in accordance with the terms of her employment agreement, dated August 4, 2022, on a termination without “cause” or resignation for “good reason” basis.

Spade was AMC’s chief financial officer when she was promoted to CEO in August. She previously had been chief financial officer for CBS Corp. and for its Showtime unit, where she worked with Matt Blank, who had been AMC’s interim CEO.

Naming a CFO as CEO indicated that AMC, spun off from Cablevision Systems and still controlled by the Dolan family, might be considering selling or merging the company.

As a smaller, independent programmers, AMC is being squeezed by cord-cutting and a tough advertising market. It has moved into streaming with a group of special interest direct-to-consumer services. AMC’s goal is to get those services to a combined total of 20 million to 25 million subscribers by 2025. That would be far behind the leader, The Walt Disney Co., which already has more than 200 million subscribers.

In the third quarter, AMC’s net income dropped to $84.7 million from $110.7 million a year ago. Revenue fell 16% to $6821 million,. Advertising revenue was down 16% to $407 million.

In September, AMC put all revenue and distribution under Kim Kelleher, who had been head of the company’s advertising sales business,

“We thank Christina for her contributions to the company in her CEO role and her earlier CFO role, and we wish her well in her future endeavors,” AMC Networks chairman James Dolan said. ■

AMC Networks, under new CEO Christina Spade, is consolidating its revenue generation and distribution operations under Kim Kelleher, who was named chief commercial officer for the company.

Josh Reader, president of distribution and development, is leaving the company early next year to start a venture in the content creation and blockchain business.

AMC Networks has been rejiggering its management team since Josh Sapan stepped down as CEO in 2021. He was replaced by Matt Blank on an interim basis and subsequently succeeded in August by Spade, who had been chief financial officer.

“A cohesive, forward-looking commercial revenue team that has responsibility for all of our valuable partner relationships across advertisers, affiliates and new digital platforms makes strong strategic sense and Kim is the perfect executive to lead it,” Spade said.

“She has brought her own unique talent, ingenuity and dynamic leadership to our commercial revenue group. We are thrilled to apply her abilities to an even more comprehensive role to drive the company’s top-line growth,” Spade said, adding that “Josh Reader is a valued colleague who has made a significant contribution to our success and positioned us well for the future. We are grateful for his leadership and we wish him great success in his new venture.”

Kelleher, who reports to Spade, joined the company in 2019 to run advertising sales as president of commercial revenue and partnership. She had been chief brand officer at Condé Nast.

In addition to the ad sales team, under the new structure, Roy Cho, who has been promoted to executive VP of distribution; Mike Pears, executive VP of distribution and content sales; and Amy Leasca, senior VP of partner management, will report to Kelleher. Barbara Kalosieh, Senior Vice President of Distribution, will report to Cho.

“I am emboldened by the opportunity to take on additional management responsibilities that help drive our business and move into a role that encompasses the entire portfolio of our premium distribution offerings and commercial relationships,” Kelleher said. “This fully integrated team will connect and leverage all of AMC Networks’ assets — our high-quality original programming, our loyal audiences and our strong subscriber services and brands — for our mutual benefit and value creation.”

Reader joined AMC Networks in 2011 as director of business development and advanced platforms. He assumed his current post in 2019.

“My time at AMC Networks has been the highlight of my career to date,” Reader said. “I am forever grateful for the experiences I have had here and the friends and colleagues I have made, both within and outside the office. I am excited to build a new company that connects video creators and fans through blockchain technology, but I will certainly miss working with everyone here. I will always be a fan of AMC Networks’ content and people, and I’ll be cheering loudly from the sidelines for Chris, Kim and the entire company.” ■

AMC Networks, continuing its management reshuffling, said that chief financial officer Christina Spade, will also be chief operating officer at the programmer.

The move follows CEO Josh Sapan’s decision in August to step down and become vice chairman. He was replaced by interim CEO Matt Blank. It also follows the decision to leave the company announced in September by COO Ed Carroll.

Spade joined AMC in January from ViacomCBS, where she was replaced as CFO. Before the Viacom-CBS merger, she had been CFO at CBS and Showtime, where she worked with Blank.

“Chris is a talented, experienced and versatile executive whose contributions have been critical to AMC Networks’ strong performance this year,” said Blank. “Having worked alongside Chris for many years at Showtime, I know her leadership skills, her deep understanding of our business, and her strategic and data driven approach make her an ideal choice for this new role as we continue to rapidly grow our streaming business and build upon our substantial owned IP, and with our continued strong performance of our traditional linear channels.”

AMC, best know for building its cable networks behind well-regarded programs like Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, has been attempting to make the pivot to streaming with a portfolio of targeted subscription services 

Spade is seen as part of AMC’s next management team, if the company isn’t sold to create greater scale.

“I look forward to continuing to work with Matt and the talented team at AMC Networks in this new role, which will enable me to further lead the company’s ongoing business transformation and unlock opportunities for more efficient operations while also helping to guide and manage our investments for growth,” said Spade. ■

ViacomCBS said it has named former Amazon executive Naveen Chopra EVP and chief financial officer, replacing Christina Spade, who will move into an advisory role at the company after its second quarter earnings results are released.

Chopra joins Viacom from Amazon, where he was CFO of its Devices and Services business. In his new role, Chopra will be responsible for ViacomCBS’s financial operations, including treasury, tax, accounting, investor relations, information security and real estate, as well as global corporate development and strategy. Chopra will report to ViacomCBS president and CEO Bob Bakish.

“Naveen is a talented leader who combines financial, strategic and operational expertise with hands-on experience growing innovative, consumer-focused businesses across the media and tech sector,” Bakish said in a press release. “His experience scaling and driving the financial strategies for growth businesses – including free ad-supported and subscription streaming, as well as with digital devices and services – will be instrumental as we continue to unlock the value of our assets.”

Prior to Amazon, Chopra spent two years as CFO of audio streaming service Pandora, serving for a period as its interim CEO. Chopra also was CFO at TiVo, where he led core strategy initiatives, including its sale to Rovi Corp. in 2016. Chopra also spent six years on the board of directors at Vonage Holdings, and is a member of the board of KQED San Francisco, one of the nation’s largest public media organizations.

“I am thrilled to join ViacomCBS at this exciting time,” said Chopra. “Since its merger, the company has gained strong momentum amidst a rapidly evolving landscape by leveraging its subscription and advertising businesses, diverse distribution channels, formidable library and strong content pipeline. I look forward to working closely with Bob and the team to apply my experiences across consumer products and services, streaming and digital advertising to help write the next chapter of this amazing company.”

Spade has spent more than two decades at Viacom, and led the company’s financial operations through the merger that created the company in 2019. Previously, she served for six years as EVP and CFO and Strategy for Showtime Networks, where she stewarded the implementation of key financial operational and reporting systems and helped scale Showtime’s streaming platform when it was launched in 2015.

“I am grateful to Chris for her many contributions to ViacomCBS, including her two decades at Showtime and CBS and the pivotal role she played in the integration of CBS and Viacom. I want to extend my deepest thanks to her for her leadership and counsel, and for helping to ensure a smooth transition,” Bakish said in the press release. 

CHRISTINA SPADE

TITLE: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

COMPANY: Showtime Networks

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: After graduating from St. Joseph’s University in 1991, Spade started working at PricewaterhouseCoopers as an auditor. Showtime named her vice president, programming finance in 1997, promoting her to senior vice president of affiliate and finance operations in 2003, finding funding for the premium channel’s fledgling original programming slate. Spade became EVP and CFO in 2013, after predecessor Jerry Scro retired.

QUOTABLE: “I’ve always had a high threshold for stress. I guess I’ve been through enough stress that it doesn’t rattle me.”

Read More >Celebrating Media's Influential Women: The 'MCN' Wonder Women Class of 2017|Meet 2017's 12 'MCN' Women to Watch|The 'MCN' Wonder Women Online Archive

To make it in the finance world, it helps to have a little pit bull to go alongside the requisite financial acumen and people skills. Showtime Networks executive vice president and chief financial officer Christina Spade has a healthy dose of all three of those traits.

“She knows how to be tough,” said one of her bosses, Showtime Networks chairman Matt Blank. “But somehow she manages to maintain that and does it in a way that she never offends anybody. People know that Chris knows her stuff. And they better know their stuff, too.”

Spade has been at Showtime for nearly 20 years, but her relationship with the company goes back even further. She audited the company’s books for accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers for five years before joining the programmer in 1997 as vice president of programming finance. She was promoted to senior vice president of affiliate and financial operations in 2003, in charge of finding and allocating funds for Showtime’s fledgling original series endeavors.

STARTED OUT ACCOUNTING

After financing Showtime originals from Dexter to Homeland, Spade was named EVP and CFO in 2013, taking over for Jerry Scro, who retired that year after more than two decades with the company.

Television wasn’t Spade’s career plan when she graduated from St. Joseph’s University in 1991 with an accounting degree. She got a job at Big Six accounting firm PwC, auditing companies in its Philadelphia office. After auditing a Philadelphia publishing company for a week, PwC decided she was ready to move to the New York office and its entertainment and media division.

“Showtime was very small back then,” Spade recalled. “They were a one-week audit. But I saw the potential of them breaking out. And even though they were small, they were growing. They were very feisty, very go-get-’em. It was a fun, entrepreneurial environment to be a part of.”

Showtime was an established premium movie channel when such channels were mostly all about movies. That changed after rival HBO broke through with The Sopranos. Suddenly, linear series were the rage and Showtime dove in headfirst.

Starting with series like Stargate SG-1 in 1997 and later with the likes of Weeds (2005), Dexter (2006), Nurse Jackie (2009) and current hits Homeland, Ray Donovan and Shameless, Showtime has become a force in scripted series.

But finding the money to invest in those shows required some belt-tightening. After being named SVP of affiliate and financial operations, Spade realized she would have to make some changes. The sales group, headed by SVP Jeff Wade, had too many people and some streamlining was in order. That’s where the feistier side of Spade’s personality came in handy.

“Jeff was a famous character,” Spade said. “He was tough and he was brutal and he liked to yell, a very full-of-life type of guy. I was very pit-bullish: I didn’t take any crap from anybody. As an auditor, you develop a thick skin.”

Showtime reorganized the group from 45 workers down to about 20 people, she said, automating some functions and preparing for the next distribution technology, nationwide direct-broadcast satellite.

Wade, who died of brain cancer in 2004, became a close friend and mentor for Spade, joining Blank; David Nevins, who is Blank’s successor as CEO; Showtime chief operating officer Tom Christie; and Joe Ianiello, chief operating officer of Showtime parent company CBS Corp., as executives who have helped her pilot her career.

The biggest catalyst has been Spade’s own savvy, said Blank. Spade’s financial tutelage has helped push Showtime profit margins in the mid-40% range — one of the highest in the business — by keeping a keen eye on costs as well as allocating funds for new projects.

One of those new projects was the Showtime standalone over-the-top service launched last year.

Nevins said Spade’s ability to allocate funds to different units when needed was critical to the standalone Showtime service’s successful launch.

“The way she balanced that throughout the year, she threaded the needle brilliantly and we’ve built a nine-figure business without denting margins,” Nevins said. “That takes a lot of finesse and execution.”

Spade said part of what attracted her to Showtime was the sense of family that pervaded the corporate culture. At no time was that more evident than when Spade was confronted with every parent’s nightmare, the loss of a child.

In December 2010, Spade’s 21-month old daughter, Alexandra Tilly Rettler, died after suddenly going into cardiac arrest.

“She was perfectly healthy,” Spade said. “We still don’t even know what happened. When you go through something like that, you have to look at every day as a gift.”

BUILDING A FOUNDATION

Shortly after, Spade; her husband, Luke Rettler, who heads up the New York County District Attorney’s Public Corruption Unit, and his colleague Eric Snyder set up the Alexandra Tilly Rettler Children’s Foundation, a non-profit organization geared to helping children in need.

Starting with a goal of raising $50,000, the foundation has raised more than $200,000 to date. Spade said her Showtime family helped her through that horrific time. “The support here is just amazing,” she said.

Spade and Rettler have two sons — Lee, age 10, and Brady, age 5 — and Showtime has enabled her to devote as much time as possible to them.“If my son has a play, I’m going to go to it, and I’ll check in before and after,” she said. “It’s accepted and encouraged. There is a lot of flexibility.”

Blank noted Spade’s own perseverance, character and strength.

“She has had certain personal challenges of the toughest kind,” he said. “I think those challenges have made her stronger and given her great perspective in everything she does, in terms of how she relates to people, her professional and personal goals. She’s a great mom, with a fantastic family. She’s one of the hardest working people I know. She’s competitive, determined — she hates it when she can’t get something done — and she has great self-awareness. I think she has unlimited potential at Showtime and CBS.”