Former Paramount exec Jeff Shultz named CEO of Radial Entertainment

Radial Entertainment, the company formed earlier this year through the combination of FilmRise and Shout! Studios, has named former Paramount Global executive Jeff Shultz as CEO.

Shultz, who was the chief strategy officer and business development officer for Paramount Global’s streaming operation, will assume oversight of the Oaktree Capital Management-backed entity on January 1.

With Shultz’s appointment, Garson Foos, who co-founded Shout! Studios and served as CEO of Radial Entertainment, will join Danny Fisher on the Radial Entertainment board as executive chairman. The announcement was made by Jared Frandle, managing director for Oaktree’s Special Situations strategy.

The combined Radial Entertainment entity has a catalogue of more than 70,000 movies and TV episodes, including Unsolved Mysteries, Forensic Files, Hell’s Kitchen and Mystery Science Theatre 3000, in addition to Hemlock Grove, Murder in Mind and Pushed to Death.

Shultz said the combined company is “uniquely positioned to capture the massive opportunity in the rapidly evolving media market, leveraging its financial scale, vast and compelling catalogue, and expansive and diversified distribution, all amplified by Oaktree’s support.”

Foos and Fisher added: “After a thorough search – and with the successful unification of the Shout! Studios and FilmRise brands under one umbrella – the timing was right to bring in our successor.

“Jeff brings extraordinary expertise as an industry leader. He has great expertise in the free-streaming market and a proven builder of high-growth businesses, having led Pluto TV and Paramount Streaming through periods of remarkable expansion.”