Kathy Payne, a veteran cable television executive who has been running content acquisition for Amazon Prime Video Channels, appears to have left the company.
Payne updated her LinkedIn page to indicate that she’s no longer in her current role at Amazon Channels, where she has worked for nearly four years. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation.
Payne joined Amazon after decades working in cable. She spend more than two years as senior vice president and chief programming officer at Suddenlink after more than 20 years at Cox Communications including 13 years as vice president of content acquisition.
Payne’s apparent exit comes at the same time as Amazon finding new leadership for Channels. According to Deadline, former BritBox CEO Soumya Sriraman has been named the new head of Prime Video Channels in the U.S., replacing Daniel Brown.
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Amazon Prime Video Channels is a premium video subscription aggregation platform that lets users sign up for and access multiple streaming services including Showtime, HBO, Starz, AMC+ and CBS All Access.
Lately the platform has been at the center of a disagreement with AT&T over distribution terms for HBO Max on. In July, AT&T CEO John Stankey said that his company has “tried repeatedly” to make HBO Max available to all customers using Amazon Fire devices.
“Unfortunately, Amazon has taken an approach of treating HBO Max and its customers differently than how they’ve chosen to treat other services and their customers,” said Stankey during an earnings call.
In May, Amazon said it had nearly 5 million HBO streamers currently accessing their subscription through Amazon’s Prime Video Channels.
“Unfortunately, with the launch of HBO Max, AT&T is choosing to deny these loyal HBO customers access to the expanded catalog,” said an Amazon spokesperson. “We believe that if you’re paying for HBO, you’re entitled to the new programming through the method you’re already using. That’s just good customer service and that’s a priority for us.”