Former Showtime architect and Paramount TV chief David Nevins will join media mogul Peter Chernin’s  The North Road Company as CEO, nine months after he announced his departure from Paramount.

Nevins will oversee North Road’s assets, including scripted film and TV studio Chernin Entertainment, unscripted house Kinetic Content, nonfiction studio Words + Pictures, and a London-based international division.

Chernin will continue to serve as executive chairman.

The North Road launched in July 2022 with a combined $800 million in financing and had an ambitious first-year business plan, purchasing the production assets of Red Arrow Studios (including shows like Love Island) and Karga Seven Pictures, as well as stake in Peyton Manning’s sports firm Omaha Productions.

In January, the company received $150 million in funding from Qatar Investment Authority, adding to the $500 million secured from Providence Equity Partners and $300 million in debt financing from Apollo.

Nevins’ arrival at North Road comes as major media companies are tightening margins after years of heavy investment into creating competitive streaming services and stocking them with content. However, these conglomerates must continue to produce content to maintain relevance and to have something to release in movie theaters that are now recovering from pandemic closures.

North Road is just one of the many entertainment companies looking to supply studios with content, but may have an advantage with Nevins at its head.

“I first reached out to David the day he resigned from Paramount because I’ve always admired David,” Chernin said in an interview with Variety. “The most important thing to us in building a company was putting together a group of the highest quality assets in the industry, capable of producing the highest quality content.” 

“There’s going to be an opportunity for well-funded private companies to be important suppliers and be really strong partners,” said Nevins in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “The big platforms need the product, and they need people who know how to deliver the product.”

Nevins served as the chief of Paramount Premium Group and Paramount Plus scripted series, and also oversaw BET and Paramount Television Studios. He expanded that role significantly while at Paramount Global, landing 244 primetime Emmy nominations for the network and producing series like Yellowjackets, Shameless, Twin Peaks and other shows. 

Nevins even offered to buy Showtime, but was reportedly turned down.

Prior to his work at Showtime, Nevins was president of Imagine Television, producing shows including Arrested Development, and Friday Night Lights. He also led CBS Entertainment before the consolidation of Viacom and CBS.

Sony Pictures Television said it has named veteran TV executive Katherine Pope as president of its Sony Pictures Television Studios, overseeing all domestic scripted productions. Pope, who has been head of original content for Charter Communications since 2018, starts her new position on August 22.

Pope will report to Ravi Ahuja, chairman, Global Television Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment Corporate Development.

“Katherine has proven herself as a dynamic leader with impeccable taste and the ability to successfully develop and produce content that resonates with audiences,“ Ahuja said in a statement. “She is an excellent fit for this role and I’m delighted that she has chosen to join us at SPT.

“Katherine brings vast experience that will help us build on the overall strength of our global production capabilities at the studio,” he continued. “With Katherine leading our scripted production business in the U.S. and Wayne Garvie leading our international production business, we have an incredible leadership team dedicated to working with the industry’s top talent to produce undeniable content around the world.”

Also: Five Spot Conversation With Katherine Pope 

Pope has more than two decades of experience in the TV business, including a 10-year run with NBC/NBCUniversal Television Studios in a number of leadership roles, including executive VP of the network and president of the studio. She developed such hit shows as Heroes, Friday Night Lights, 30 Rock, and The Office. Pope later launched the television division at Peter Chernin’s Twentieth Century Fox-based production company, Chernin Entertainment, overseeing all creative development and production. She also executive produced several series, including Fox comedy New Girl.

She was tapped to run Charter’s original content division, Spectrum Originals, in 2018, curating a slate of premium series such as the upcoming A Spy Among Friends, starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce, as well as Beacon 23, starring Lena Headey and Stephan James; Panhandle, starring Luke Kirby, and George & Tammy, starring Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon. She also greenlighted L.A.’s Finest, starring Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba, the limited series revival of Mad About You, and Joe Pickett, which became Spectrum Originals’ most-watched series.

Pope also served as executive producer, along with Elizabeth Meriwether, of the Emmy-nominated Hulu limited series The Dropout, based on the podcast of the same name and starring Amanda Seyfried.

In May, Pope was named one of Multichannel News's Wonder Women of Los Angeles.

“I am thrilled to be joining the incredibly talented team Tony and Ravi have assembled at SPT — a studio with the strength, expertise and independence to lead amidst the challenges of a rapidly evolving marketplace,” Pope said in a statement. “I have long admired the creativity and high-quality work SPT consistently produces and can’t wait to explore all the opportunities that lie ahead. I am excited to step onto the lot and get started!”

No word on who Charter will name as Pope’s replacement, but sources familiar with the operator said they are working on transition plans. ■ 

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BOSTON – AT&T Entertainment Group CEO John Stankey said recent moves to acquire digital content and technology are part of an overall plan to meld long-form, short-form, mobile and premium content into a new category, a so-called digital bundle that could help draw consumers who have been reluctant to participate in pay TV into the fold.

At Tuesday’s INTX Show General Session, Stankey pointed to AT&T’s joint venture with former 21st Century Fox chief Peter Chernin – Otter Media – and other moves including its purchase of Quickplay, are all part of that overall plan.

The Quickplay deal, he said, fulfills a desire the company has had almost for the dozen years it has been in the TV business – to won he full stack of technology behind its services. Quickplay, a multi-screen video firm for managed and over-the-top video that currently supports AT&T U-Verse’s TV Everywhere service, is a move in that direction.

“[Now] we own the entire technology stack to deliver to end users,” Stankey said. “Most people are going to play in the full stack approach,” Stankey said, adding he feels good about what the moves does for the company.

Related:Behind AT&T’s Cross-Platform Video Moves: Q&A With Tony Goncalves [subscription required]

Stankey said that in the next two or three years, he envisions a world where AT&T has fused its products in the mobile, premium content with other short-form and long-form programming from Otter and other sources, creating a new category where the two are blended together.

“If we’re successful, it’s also an opportunity to start pulling folks who haven’t moved into; subscriber services into subscriber services,” Stankey said. “I don’t know what precisely that is going to be, but mobile allows you to try a lot of different things.”

Stankey stopped short of calling AT&T’s moves an attempt to create a gateway product for younger consumers, and added that some consumers will never be coaxed into the pay TV model.

“I definitely believe we need to have a set of training wheels,” Stankey said. “And I do believe that some will never come into the ecosystem. But we’re starting to see where different sized bundles allow you to address different parts of the market.”

He added that building the right architecture, providing connectivity and helping consumers move the “tonnage” of bits for entertainment or what have you while maintaining a proper return on investment, “that’s OK as a business too.”

Stankey also joined the chorus of pay TV operators in opposition to recent proposals by the Federal Communications Commission to unlock set-top boxes and xx, addingthat the current environment that encourages investment in infrastructure “seems to be a winning  combination.”