After Close Of Redbox Acquisition, Chicken Soup For The Soul Entertainment Sets New Senior Management Roster

Dade Hayes
·3 min read

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, which earlier this month closed its $375 million acquisition of Redbox, has set the combined company’s new senior management roster.

Galen Smith, former CEO of Redbox, had previously been confirmed to stay on after the deal. Smith will be executive vice chairman of Redbox and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, overseeing long-term planning including strategy, mergers and acquisitions and corporate services.

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Former E.W. Scripps exec Jonathan Katz had also been announced as president of the merged company. He will lead day-to-day operations, including streaming, kiosk, distribution and studios.

Both Smith and Katz will report to Bill Rouhana, CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment.

A number of execs will report to Smith. They include Peter Binazeski, SVP Corporate Communications; Chief People Officer Marisa Famulare; Chief Innovation Officer Jason Kwong; Chief Financial Officer Chris Mitchell; Chief Strategy Officer Elana Sofko; and Chief Legal Officer Fred Stein.

Reporting to Katz will be Michael Chamberlain, Redbox’s COO and president; David Ellender, CEO of studios and head of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Television Group; Chief Acquisitions & Distribution Officer David Fannon; Chief Marketing Officer Mike Feldner; Chief Revenue Officer Philippe Guelton; and Chief Digital Officer Adam Mosam.

Ellender will continue to lead the development and production of original content for all owned-and-operated platforms, which now includes Redbox kiosks and streaming, as well as third-party productions. Fannon will still oversee all domestic and international content acquisition and distribution, expanding his purview to include Redbox, and continuing in his role as president of Screen Media Ventures.

Feldner is adding the combined company to his Redbox role, heading up all marketing, branding, and creative services, along with leading the company’s analytics and insights activities. Guelton is expanding his role to lead all advertising sales and operations as well as revenue partnerships across the company. Mosam is adding oversight of the company’s streaming businesses, including product, technology and platform distribution.

“Our new senior leadership team brings together some of the best executives in the streaming and entertainment business and sets us up for continued success,” Rouhana said. “As we continue to grow, this team has the knowledge, skill, and drive to build a major company that delivers premium entertainment to value-conscious consumers.”

CSSE has grown into a quirky but formidable presence in the free, ad-supported streaming business by consistently punching above its weight. The company outmaneuvered a number of bigger prospective buyers to acquire Crackle from Sony and also picked up Screen Media, 1091 Media and the assets of Robert Halmi Sr.’s Sonar Entertainment. It nurtured a roster of free streaming outlets like Popcornflix long before the prevailing industry sentiment shifted more firmly in favor of advertising’s potential as a key revenue engine.

As Wall Street has hashed over the investment thesis for streaming as a category, CSSE shares have been caught in the crossfire, losing nearly one-third of their value in 2022 to date. Since the Redbox deal was announced in May, though, they have risen more than 40%. At mid-day today, they had slipped 8% to $10.50 on light trading volume.

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