SkyShowtime appoints Hristina Georgieva as Chief Business Officer

Former Disney executive Hristina Georgieva has been appointed as Chief Business Officer of SkyShowtime. Reporting to Monty Sarhan, CEO of SkyShowtime, Georgieva will lead the Distribution & Partnerships function at SkyShowtime, and have P&L responsibility for all B2B revenue.

Moreover, in this new role, she will oversee and lead new business development and partnerships with cable, satellite, and telco distributors as well as platforms, device manufacturers, and other partners including retailers as well as consumer products and services.

Georgieva previously served as Vice President of Affiliate Distribution & Commercial Development at Disney for four years, and was part of the team to launch Disney+ across EMEA, negotiating its first deals with cable, satellite, and telco partners including in many of SkyShowtime’s territories.

Georgieva has spent her media career driving distribution and revenue. Prior to Disney, she held senior roles at Fox Networks Group and Discovery, where she led pan-European commercial strategies, partnerships, and distribution. Georgieva will be based in London and join the SkyShowtime team later this year.

“I am excited to welcome Hristina to the SkyShowtime leadership team. Over her career, she has established an impressive track record as a skilled dealmaker. She is uniquely qualified to lead our Distribution & Partnerships function across Europe. With SkyShowtime now live across all markets, her extensive experience in expanding distribution and delivering revenue will help drive SkyShowtime’s next phase of growth,”  stated Monty Sarhan, CEO of SkyShowtime.

“I am thrilled to join SkyShowtime, particularly at such an exciting point of their adventure, having only recently completed their European rollout. I am looking forward to working together with Monty and the SkyShowtime team to grow the business, forge new partnerships with distributors and partners, and help to bring their iconic, high-quality entertainment to more audiences,”  Georgieva added.

Sarhan also announced the appointment of two additional senior hires who will be joining SkyShowtime from other major streaming services. Both are part of the newly formed Strategy team and report directly to Chief Strategy Officer Roberto Soto, who joined SkyShowtime late last year from HBO Max.

Brett Horowitz has been named Vice President of Commercial Strategy, overseeing subscriber growth strategy across D2C and B2B segments and supporting the Marketing and Distribution & Partnerships teams. He joins SkyShowtime from HBO Max, where he served in a number of roles including Head of Data, Insights, and Planning and, prior to that, was CFO of HBO Nordics for over seven years.

Moreover, Anazia Budhwar joins as Director of Content Strategy, working with SkyShowtime’s programming team to optimize acquisition and originals strategies and drive engagement. She joins from Netflix, where she served as Strategy and Planning Lead for over three years. Prior to Netflix, she worked at NBCUniversal in London.

“Along with Hristina, these hires show that SkyShowtime is becoming a magnet for talent throughout Europe. Across the organization, I am extremely proud of the team we are assembling. And since joining last year, Roberto has done a great job in building a strong strategy function. Brett and Anazia bolster his team further, bringing streaming expertise and growing our capabilities in key areas,”  Sarhan concluded.