Frances Manfredi
President, TV & New Media DIstribution, U.S. and Canada, NBCUniversal
Manfredi secured more than $1 billion in revenue for NBCU in 2015, while closing profile deals with major SVOD players. One of her most recent victories was selling USA Network’s award-winning “Mr. Robot” to Amazon Prime. With that deal, Manfredi made the series available to Amazon Prime subs globally. She also locked in a kids programming deal with Hulu for past and present seasons of PBS’ “Curious George” and as well as for Syfy’s hit “12 Monkeys,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “Saved by the Bell.” She brokered a global deal for “Colony” with Netflix before it aired a single episode as well. Manfredi believes the biggest story in cable this year is “skinny bundles and apps vs. aggregating broadest content into one user interface.”
What advice would you give your 13-year-old self?
Follow your passion and you won’t regret any part of your journey or where you end up.
Which current programming best reflects the kind of women’s roles you like to see and why?
“Madame Secretary,” “Suits,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “UnReal” – powerful women in big jobs facing challenging circumstances and succeeding.
What’s been the biggest story in cable this year?
Skinny bundles + apps vs. aggregating broadest content into one user interface.
