Business 4 min read By Lauren Baxter
Skydance Taps Jay Askinasi, David Decker and Ray Hopkins for Senior Sales and Distribution Roles
Skydance has named Jay Askinasi as Chief Revenue Officer for Advertising, David Decker as President of Content Sales, and Ray Hopkins as President of Distribution, continuing a wave of executive appointments after the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
Skydance has named three senior executives to lead its advertising, content sales, and distribution operations, the latest in a series of appointments shaping the leadership of the company formed from the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Jay Askinasi will serve as Chief Revenue Officer for Advertising, David Decker will become President of Content Sales, and Ray Hopkins has been appointed President of Distribution. All three will report to JB Perrette, Co-Chair and Chief Business Officer of Skydance TV and Skydance DTC.
The appointments place the trio at the center of Skydance's commercial strategy as it seeks to generate revenue across advertising, licensing, and distribution. Askinasi's advertising portfolio covers the company's ad sales business, while Decker takes charge of content sales and Hopkins oversees distribution.
Decker arrives from Warner Bros. Discovery, where he held a senior executive role before the merger. His appointment comes as Kevin MacLellan, President of International and Global Content Distribution at the pre-merger Paramount, is leaving Skydance. MacLellan had been with Paramount since August 2019, according to the company's announcement, and his exit follows the installation of the new leadership team.
The leadership changes are part of a broader restructuring under David Ellison, the Skydance CEO who has described the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery as a response to the media industry's failure to adapt when large technology companies entered the entertainment space roughly a decade ago.
Ellison has framed the combination as a corrective to what he characterizes as a missed pivot by legacy media. He has contrasted the owner-operator culture of Silicon Valley with the culture of Hollywood, arguing that the merged company is positioned to compete more effectively in a landscape reshaped by technology platforms.
The executive appointments also come as Skydance continues to reorganize its film and television assets. Turner Classic Movies will sit within the Skydance Film Group, giving the classic film network a new corporate home after three years under Warner Bros. Discovery. That earlier restructuring drew attention when filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson met with David Zaslav about the network's future.
For Skydance, the three appointments fill key commercial roles at a moment when the company is integrating two major Hollywood studios and their respective libraries, networks, and streaming operations. Advertising, content sales, and distribution are among the primary revenue channels for a media company of that scale, and the executives will be responsible for negotiating carriage deals, licensing content to third parties, and selling advertising inventory across the combined portfolio.
The appointments were announced Thursday. Askinasi and Hopkins will also serve in additional capacities, though the company did not immediately detail those responsibilities.
Skydance has not disclosed a timeline for further leadership announcements, but the pace of appointments suggests the integration of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery remains in an active phase. The company has yet to comment publicly on MacLellan's departure beyond confirming the new appointments.
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