Bridget Baker’s impending exit as president of TV networks distribution for NBCUniversal, evidently won't be the only change in the programmer's executive suite. According to sources familiar with the situation, longtime Cablevision affiliate head Mac Budill will soon be joining NBCU.
B&C reported earlier today that Baker will leave her NBCU gig at the end of November. Sources indicate that some of her duties will be filled by Budill, who has been serving as Cablevision executive vice president of programming.
In his new post, Budill will be making the transition from gatekeeper at the predominant distributor in the New York metro area to a negotiator for NBCU’s vast programming portfolio, reporting -- as Baker has -- to NBCU’s head of content distribution Matt Bond.
Budill, according to sources, left his position at Cablevision earlier this month.
Sources indicate Tom Montemagno, senior vice president of programming acquisition at Cablevision, would step into Budill’s former role in leading the MSO's negotiations with content providers.
NBCU and Cablevision both declined to comment.
Baker, a founder of CNBC, has spent her career at NBCU and is credited with developing the company's cable assets from inception. Her departure will come almost two years after Comcast announced an executive management restructuring in November 2010 ahead of the finalization of its acquisition of NBCU in January 2011.
Under that organizational structure, Bond himself made the transition from the other side of the negotiating table: he had been leading Comcast’s negotiation efforts as executive vice president of acquisition. Baker and JB Perrette, president of digital and affiliate distribution reported to Bond.
Perrette, now chief digital officer at Discovery Communications, exited NBCU in October 2011.
