Soumya Sriraman: Last News

Manori Ravindran International Editor Soumya Sriraman, the former BritBox CEO who joined Amazon to lead its Prime Video Channels business in the U.S., is stepping down after two years at the SVOD. Sources indicate the executive is still at Amazon but will be leaving imminently for another role elsewhere. Sriraman is best known for her work pioneering the best-of-British streaming service BritBox in the U.S., where she is based. The SVOD launched there in 2017 and quickly reached 250,000 subscribers in one year. By the time Sriraman departed, in October 2020, the service had more than 1.5 million subscribers. The successful U.S. launch allowed joint operators BBC Studios and ITV to expand the brand to other markets, including Australia and Canada.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Retail-focused sister streamers QVC+ and HSN+ are marking their second year of original holiday programming with a new TV movie starring Ashlee Simpson. Titled “The Recipe Files,” the holiday baking mystery — filled with cameos from QVC hosts and plenty of plugs for tie-in products and partner brands — is directed by Lindsay Hartley (“Passions,” “Days of Our Lives”) and will launch on QVC+ Nov.

Sophia Scorziello editor The “Breakthrough Tech – Media Trendsetters” panel at Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit brought together industry leaders Vibol Hou, EVP and chief technology officer of Paramount Streaming; Shalini Govil-Pai, VP at Google TV; Erin Oremland, GM of AgilLink at City National Bank; Soumya Sriraman, president of streaming at Qurate Retail Group; and Will Cady, global brand ambassador at Reddit to talk about innovation in media technology. The conversation was moderated by Variety digital editor Todd Spangler. Oremland said City National Bank’s AgiLink embraces innovation in the ways it partners with clients, which includes family offices, business managers, sports professional firms and the like.