Amazon Freevee shuffles leadership

Freevee has restructured its leadership team, with co-content chiefs Ryan Pirozzi and Lauren Anderson taking on separate strategic roles. 

Pirozzi has been made head of Amazon Freevee, overseeing the business and operational side of the AVoD platform, while Anderson is now head of AVoD original content and programming at Amazon Studios – which will see her lead on all content and programming for Freevee. 

As co-heads of content and programming, Pirozzi and Anderson oversaw the expansion of Freevee to the UK and, more recently, Germany, following its launch in North America.  

The platform has quickly ramped up its library of content from licensed programming to originals, including crime procedural spin-off Bosch: Legacy and youth-skewing espionage series Alex Rider. 

Earlier this year, Freevee said it would grow original programming by 70% in 2022, while Pirozzi and Anderson told Broadcast they are eyeing local originals in the territories the service has expanded into as the next “logical step” to grow. 

Freevee has since commissioned a Post Malone music documentary from Pulse Films and a US remake of Friday Night Dinner from Big Talk. 

Pirozzi has been at Amazon for almost 12 years, leading on TV and features acquisitions and licensing for nine years before segueing into his Freevee role.  

Anderson joined Amazon Studios in 2019 as the head of strategic content, managing series including the Savage X Fenty Show for Prime Video.  

Prior to that, she was a leading NBC entertainment exec serving as senior vice-president of primetime programming, developing and shepherding iconic titles such as The Office, The Good Place, A.P. Bio and Parks and Recreation. She joined Amazon from Indigo Development and Entertainment Arts, the joint venture studio set up between NBCUniversal and Snapchat, where she was chief content officer.