Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison has tapped HBO content chief Casey Bloys to oversee streaming operations once the company combines with Warner Bros. Discovery, people familiar with the matter said.

It's the first major executive decision by Ellison ahead of Paramount's planned $81 billion acquisition of Warner, which owns HBO.

As a result, Cindy Holland, the former Netflix programming executive whom Ellison put in charge of Paramount's streaming platforms about a year ago, is leaving the company.

The moves come as Paramount awaits a judge's approval of the settlement agreement it reached last week with 12 Democratic state attorneys general who had sought to block the Warner merger on antitrust grounds.

Ellison's decision to choose Bloys over Holland ends a Hollywood parlor game over who would land what is considered one of the most important roles at the combined company. Bloys is considered a premier programmer, while HBO has long been viewed as the gold standard among entertainment platforms.

Ellison was concerned that losing Bloys would damage the HBO brand, which is a crucial part of the company's streaming strategy, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

Bloys wasn't interested in partnering with another executive to run the streaming operation and had made that clear to Paramount, people familiar with his thinking said.

In a statement, Ellison praised Holland, saying she is a "force of nature whose impact on Paramount over the past year has been significant."

Holland didn't respond to a request for comment. The New York Times first reported news of her departure.