EXCLUSIVE: Nancy Tellem, the highly respected former television executive, who has been running an Internet start-up and has been on the MGM board since 2013, is now stepping into the office of the CEO at MGM. She is expected to help on overall company strategy with top execs Mark Burnett and Chris Brearton, sources…

Nancy Tellem, who was CBS Network TV president and then launched Microsoft’s short-lived Xbox Entertainment Studios, has re-emerged as Executive Chairman and Chief Media Officer of Interlude. The company made its name initially in interactive music videos for Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Coldplay and others but is…

Time ran out for XBox Entertainment Studios President Nancy Tellem and EVP Jordan Levin in their efforts to keep Microsoft’s entertainment unit alive by finding another partner. The final wave of layoffs at Microsoft today, in which 3,000 positions were eliminated, included Tellem, Levin and their skeleton crew left…

Some in Hollywood may have been surprised by Microsoft’s announcement that Xbox Entertainment Studios, its much-touted experiment in new kinds of interactive TV programming and headed by former CBS President Nancy Tellem, would be shut down. But really, didn’t we see this coming? Here are five reasons why the…

This morning’s announcement by Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella of one of the largest layoffs in tech history, a plan to cut 18,000 jobs, triggered a whirlwind of speculation about the future of the fledgling Xbox Entertainment Studios. In a memo, Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s Xbox division and…

Xbox is stepping up its efforts to become an original programming player in the digital space with its first development slate, which includes dramas, live-action and animated comedies, unscripted and event series. The company first signaled its entrance into original programming at the unveiling of Xbox One a year…

In what marks the first official scripted series green light for Xbox Entertainment Studios, the entertainment arm of Microsoft’s XBox has teamed with UK broadcaster Channel 4  to co-produce Humans. The drama, which has received an eight-episode order, hails from UK production company, Kudos (Broadchurch), which has…

The Paley Center for Media‘s International Council Summit will be held November 21st & 22nd in New York. The theme of this year’s event is “The Data Overthrow.” It will explore and debate new business, advertising, and distribution models in today’s age of unprecedented access to information about consumers and their…

David Bloom is a contributor to Deadline. Microsoft's announcement this morning that Steve Ballmer, the oldest of the old guard at what was once the biggest of the big tech companies, is leaving as CEO should be a major deal in Hollywood as well as Silicon Valley. After all, Ballmer and the tech giant he's helped run…

CEO Gary Barber told MGM’s private investors that Tribune CEO Peter Liguori left the studio’s board so he could spend more time dealing with his company. He took charge of Tribune in January. Last month the company said that it will spend $2.73B on television station owner Local TV  — which Liguori called a…

EXCLUSIVE: Microsoft’s nascent unit run by Nancy Tellem continues to staff up, with Albert Page signing on as VP Creative. Before joining Xbox Entertainment Studios, he was SVP Production and Development at Mandeville Films, where he developed films including The Proposal and Best Picture Oscar nominee The Fighter…

EXCLUSIVE: A week-plus after Microsoft launched its more entertainment-focused Xbox One, Elan Lee has been tapped as Chief Design Officer at Xbox Entertainment Studios, the unit run since September by former CBS Inc. No. 2 Nancy Tellem. After starting his career at Microsoft Game Studios as Lead Designer on the…