BYRON ALLEN HIRES SHAUN WILLIAMS AS CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER OF NEWLY-FORMED ALLEN MEDIA STUDIOS

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Byron Allen's Allen Media Group (AMG) proudly announces the hiring of Shaun Williams to the newly-created position of Chief Financial Officer of Allen Media Studios. In this new position, Williams will oversee financial planning, accounting, and business analysis for AMG's production division – the newly-named Allen Media Studios – which encompasses all AMG television, motion picture, digital, and streaming content production and distribution. Williams will be based at the AMG headquarters in Los Angeles.

Allen Media Studios produces and distributes television programming for broadcast syndication and cable networks for its Allen Media Television division. Allen Media Studios also produces, acquires, and distributes theatrical and digital motion picture content for its Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures and Freestyle Digital Media divisions, in addition to producing and distributing digital content for its free-streaming platforms Local Now, The Grio.TV, HBCUGo, and Sports.TV. For more than 25 years, Mr. Williams has held a variety of senior leadership and executive positions in the entertainment and media industry encompassing strategic planning, finance, production, distribution, and operations. Williams comes to Allen Media Studios directly from his recent position as Chief Financial Officer at Solstice Studios, an independent movie production, finance and distribution company founded in October 2018. Prior to Solstice Studios, Williams was Head of Finance at the London-based global independent television, film and digital production/distribution company ALL3Media. Before that, Williams was Chief Financial Officer for the film and television production company Studio 8, and he also served as the Senior Vice President of Finance for Graham King's film and television production and distribution company GK Films/Film District. Other executive titles Williams has held include Vice President of Business Operations for BET Networks, Original Programming Group and Vice President of Finance for Twentieth Century Fox. Williams received his M.B.A. from The Anderson School of Management at UCLA and his bachelor's degree in Business Administration/Accounting from the University of Wisconsin.

"Veteran finance executive Shaun Williams is a highly-valuable and excellent addition to our Allen Media Group family," said Byron Allen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Allen Media Group. "Shaun's extensive accounting, financial, and operations experience makes him the ideal executive team leader as we continue to invest significant amounts of capital in content production, digital platforms, and global distribution."

"I am beyond thrilled to join Byron Allen and his outstanding team at Allen Media Group at such a pivotal time in our industry," said Shaun Williams, Chief Financial Officer for Allen Media Studios. "Mr. Allen has amassed an unparalleled collection of assets which makes Allen Media Group ideally suited to take advantage of tremendous growth opportunities ahead. Allen Media Studios is extremely well-positioned for greater market share and success. I look forward to accelerating production and distribution output across Allen Media's expanding portfolio of broadcast television stations, broadcast television networks, cable networks, motion pictures, and direct-to-consumer streaming platforms."

About Allen Media Group / Entertainment Studios
Chairman and CEO Byron Allen founded Allen Media Group/Entertainment Studios in 1993. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it has offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Charleston, SC. Allen Media Group owns 27 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX network affiliate broadcast television stations in 21 U.S. markets and twelve 24-hour HD television networks serving nearly 220 million subscribers: THE WEATHER CHANNEL, PETS.TV, COMEDY.TV, RECIPE.TV, CARS.TV, ES.TV, MYDESTINATION.TV, JUSTICE CENTRAL.TV, THEGRIO.TV, THIS TV, LOCAL NOW TV, and PATTRN. Allen Media Group will add its thirteenth network, THE WEATHER CHANNEL EN ESPANOL in 2022. Allen Media Group also owns THE GRIO, HBCUGO, and LOCAL NOW, the free-streaming AVOD service powered by THE WEATHER CHANNEL and content partners, which delivers real-time, hyper-local news, weather, traffic, sports, and lifestyle information. Allen Media Group also produces, distributes, and sells advertising for 68 television programs, making it one of the largest independent producers/distributors of first-run syndicated television programming for broadcast television stations. Allen Media Group International Television continues to extend its corporate branding and content around the globe. It currently has active license agreements and programming in South Africa, The United Arab Emirates, Australia, The Bahamas, Canada and New Zealand.  With a library of over 5,000 hours of owned content across multiple genres, Allen Media Group provides video content to broadcast television stations, cable television networks, mobile devices, and multimedia digital platforms. Our mission is to provide excellent programming to our viewers, online users, and Fortune 500 advertising partners.

Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures is a full-service, theatrical motion picture distribution company specializing in wide release commercial content. ESMP released 2017's highest-grossing independent movie, the shark thriller 47 METERS DOWN, which grossed over $44.3 million. In 2018, ESMP also released the critically-acclaimed and commercially successful Western HOSTILES, the historic mystery-thriller CHAPPAQUIDDICK and the sequel to 47 METERS DOWN, 47 METERS DOWN: UNCAGED. The digital distribution unit of Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, Freestyle Digital Media, is a premiere multi-platform distributor with direct partnerships across all major cable, digital and streaming platforms. Capitalizing on a robust infrastructure, proven track record and a veteran sales team, Freestyle Digital Media is a true home for independent films.

In 2016, Allen Media Group purchased The Grio, a highly-rated digital video-centric news community platform devoted to providing African-Americans with compelling stories and perspectives currently underrepresented in existing national news outlets. The Grio features aggregated and original video packages, news articles and opinion pieces on topics that include breaking news, politics, health, business and entertainment. Originally launched in 2009, the platform was then purchased by NBC News in 2010. The digital platform remains focused on curating exciting digital content and currently has more than 100 million annual visitors.

For more information, visit:
www.entertainmentstudios.com

SOURCE Allen Media Group