Viacom Digital Studios has appointed Rebecca Glashow (pictured right) and Shelley Zimmerman (pictured left) as co-heads of its recently acquired digital net Awesomeness. They will oversee the company’s television studio, as well as social, marketing, production, programming and distribution.
Glashow was most recently chief strategy and distribution officer for Awesomeness, before it was acquired. Prior to that, she served in executive roles overseeing content distribution and strategy at Discovery and Comcast.
Zimmerman, meanwhile, formerly headed headed up Awesomeness’s television studio, and led scripted programming development and production at Warner Horizon and Tollin/Robbins Productions before that.
Awesomeness recently produced To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, which was released on Netflix in August. And it’s also launching a third show with Hulu next month, Light as a Feather.
VDS acquired Awesomeness from Comcast/NBCUniversal, Hearst and Verizon at the end of July in an effort to bolster its portfolio. CEO Jordan Levin left after the acquisition, making room for these new appointments.
Looking ahead, Awesomeness plans to create premium digital programming at scale for young audiences using distribution and business models outside of linear television. Launched in late 2017, VDS generated more than 4.3 billion social video views and 4.7 billion viewing minutes in the US in Q2 2018 (up 112% and 104%, respectively, year over year).