Sony Pictures Technologies ups pair

SingerStephensSony Pictures Technologies has upped a pair of its senior execs to new roles.Mitch Singer has been promoted to a newly created post as chief digital strategy officer. He will report to Chris Cookson, prexy of Sony Pictures Technologies. Singer, an important player in the creation of the UltraViolet cloud service, will focus on studio-wide strategies to address the digital revolution in the entertainment industry, including ways to prevent piracy. "With the explosion of new distribution models and the need to keep in mind the underlying value of the content we're trying to distribute, it's important to have somebody who looks at this from a strategic point of view," Cookson said.Singer had been chief technology officer for SPT, but his background is in intellectual property law, not technology. Replacing him as CTO is Spencer Stephens, a longtime technologist whose studio experience includes stints at Warner Bros. and Disney prior to joining Sony in 2009. He was most recently exec VP, technologies. Stephens is "working more on hard technology: prototyping, testing, developing and adapting technologies to solve the problems the studio faces in both the creation and distribution of its product," Cookson said. That frees Singer to work more on strategic issues. Sony Pictures Technologies focuses on developing and deploying technological solutions for creation, management and distribution of entertainment content. Contact David S. Cohen at david.cohen@variety.com