NBCUniversal has elevated leaders overseeing platform distribution and partnerships, on Tuesday announcing the promotions of Amy Geary and Pat Hicks.
Geary, who was appointed two years ago to SVP, has been promoted to executive vice president of Platform Distribution & Partnerships, where she will lead the company’s pay TV distribution segment. That includes overseeing NBCU's pay TV distribution negotiations with MVPD and vMVPDs, as well free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) negotiations and Peacock distribution efforts.
Since her last promotion, NBCU said Geary played a key role in negotiating deals and strengthening partnerships including with Comcast, Dish, DirecTV, Google, Hulu and Verizon. Geary counts more than 15 years of media distribution and development experience, including earlier roles at Comcast, Viacom (now Paramount Global) and Disney.
She will continue to report to Matt Schnaars, president of Platform Distribution and Partnerships.
The elevated role for Geary comes as the pay TV landscape continues to evolve, including new models for agreements among programmers and distributors - like those spearheaded by Charter Communications, which has pushed for and succeeded in getting carriage agreements with several major programmers to include access to their ad-supported SVOD apps in pay TV packages at no additional cost to Charter customers.
And pay TV providers, both traditional and virtual, have been experimenting with adding FAST channels and offerings to their lineups. DirecTV’s MyFree is one recent example, where NBCU added a dozen channels in April as part of a distribution deal.
As Geary steps into the expanded role, Hicks has also been promoted at NBCU and will now serve as SVP of Platform Distribution and Partnerships. He’ll continue to report to Geary.
As SVP, Hicks will lead distribution efforts on accounts including Altice, Comcast, DirecTV, Hulu, NCTC and Verizon. Hicks started his career at Viacom and has been with NBCU since 2013. His earlier contributions at NBCU include managing partnerships with Altice and Comcast, as well as Peacock distribution and FAST channels.