Paramount Streaming Chief Cindy Holland Steps Down

For some time now, the smart money in Hollywood has said that the soon-to-be-combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery wasn’t big enough for both HBO/HBO Max chief Casey Bloys and Paramount streaming boss Cindy Holland. Turns out the smart money was right: Holland told staff today that she is stepping down from her current role effective immediately, paving the way for Bloys to assume leadership of David Ellison’s new streaming empire.

“As David readies for the next phase of his vision, we’ve discussed my role and the future of the combined businesses,” Holland wrote in a staff memo, a copy of which was obtained by Vulture. “David is optimizing for HBO stability as we move into this next chapter, and I fully support that.” As we noted last week, it was highly unlikely that either Bloys or Holland would want to share custody of the streaming division at the new company. So even though Holland has had some solid wins in her roughly one year at Paramount — including a complete overhaul of the company’s free streamer, Pluto TV — at some point Ellison was going to have to decide between the two execs. Given what Holland wrote about “HBO stability,” it seems clear he’s choosing Culver City.