Skydance, the company formed from the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, is filling out the commercial side of its leadership. On Thursday it named Jay Askinasi chief revenue officer for advertising, David Decker president of content sales, and Ray Hopkins president of distribution. Askinasi and Hopkins will also serve on the Skydance Executive Leadership Team. All three report to JB Perrette, co-chair and chief business officer of Skydance TV and Skydance DTC streaming.
Three revenue lines under one structure
The appointments consolidate advertising, content licensing and distribution under a single leadership group. Askinasi joins with a digital-first record: he was chief revenue officer at Paramount, led global media revenue and growth at Roku, and served as CEO of Publicis Media Exchange U.S. Decker, a more than two-decade Warner Bros. veteran, will run worldwide content sales. Hopkins, who joined CBS Corporation in 2013 and has more than 35 years in distribution, will manage relationships with video providers, digital and streaming platforms, and CBS affiliates.
Consolidation changes the old guard
The new structure means some Warner Bros. Discovery-era commercial leaders are departing. Ryan Gould and Robert “Bobby” Voltaggio, presidents of U.S. advertising sales at Warner Bros. Discovery, will leave. Scott Miller, president of networks and streaming distribution, will also leave as Hopkins takes the role.
Why a digital-first ad chief matters
For media buyers, the personnel choice is the signal. Askinasi has spent his career across platforms, agencies, data and ad technology. That profile suggests Skydance wants to sell streaming inventory more like a platform business and less like a legacy linear TV operation. Advertisers with existing WBD sales relationships should expect the leadership change to eventually touch how inventory is packaged across linear and streaming properties.
A company of this scale typically thinks of revenue in three lanes: selling audiences to advertisers, selling content to platforms, and selling carriage to distributors. Skydance has now put a specialist in each lane, giving marketers a clearer counterparty and raising the question of how quickly it bundles linear and streaming inventory.
What to watch next
- Watch for unified ad products or cross-platform packages as the first commercial move.
- Track whether rate cards and streaming inventory are repriced under the new leadership.
- Expect content licensing and distribution decisions to reflect one merged catalogue, not two legacy portfolios.
Perrette framed the appointments as a step toward “combining our strengths and uniting our teams” to serve audiences and partners. For buyers and platform partners, the next reveal is not another title; it is the strategy behind the rate card.
Source: Variety
