Discovery Channel president Eileen O’Neill has been tapped to fill the newly created position of Global Group President of Discovery Studios,overseeing the company's studio and prodcution properties, Discovery Communications president and CEO David Zaslav announced Tuesday.
O’Neill, a longtime Discovery executive who for the last three years headed up the company’s flagship channel, will now manage Discovery Communications’ in-house production units, betty and Raw, as well as serve on the Board of Directors of recently acquired production company All3Media once the transaction has closed, according to Discovery.
Marjorie Kaplan, group president for TLC and Animal Planet network, will also oversee Discovery Channel on an interim basis until a full-time replacement for O’Neill can be found.
O’Neill will report to Bruce Campbell, who will continue to oversee the Discovery Studios Group, as well as remain Chief Development and Digital Media Officer and General Counsel for Discovery Communications.
“One of the key pillars of Discovery’s success over the past eight years has been our significant investment in world-class content across all screens, and part of that strategy has focused on strengthening our in-house studio capabilities, acquiring more IP across new genres and formats, and bringing some of the world’s top production houses into our company,” said Zaslav in a statement. “Eileen is one of the very best we have at Discovery. In this new role, she will accelerate the growth, output and development of our production engines, and oversee the strategy and investment in new programming, new content creators, new categories and new technologies.”
