After bringing Bravo, E!, Esquire Network and Oxygen together in the Lifestyle Networks group led by Frances Berwick, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment chairman Bonnie Hammer is making a similar move with the rest of her portfolio. USA, Syfy, Chiller and Cloo are being consolidated into Entertainment Networks group headed by USA president Chris McCumber, who will become President, Entertainment Networks.

Syfy president David Howe will be leaving his post to become President, Strategy and Commercial Growth. In his new role, he will work with Hammer on exploring opportunities across the portfolio, and experimenting with new business models, platforms and technologies. He will focus on overall growth of the portfolio – both domestically and internationally – overseeing Business Development and Business Affairs.

Related Story NBCUniversal Introduces Total Investment Impact Measurement For Ad Buyers

As part of the restructuring, all original scripted programming for NBCUni Cable Entertainment will be centralized and run by Syfy’s Bill McGoldrick who will become EVP, Scripted Content for the portfolio, including USA, Syfy, E! and Bravo. USA’s EVP scripted programming Jackie de Crinis will report to him.

NBCUni Cable Entertainment already consolidated scripted development on the production side under Jeff Wachtel, President, Chief Content Officer and Head of Studios. McGoldrick will report to Wachtel.

McCumber’s direct reports will include three executives from the various divisions and one new addition who will now assume responsibility for the Entertainment group in their respective areas: Alexandra Shapiro, EVP, Marketing; Rob Spodek, CFO; Katherine Nelson, SVP, Communications; and David Giles, SVP, Research, who was most recently at Viacom.

In an interview with Deadline, Hammer said that she and her team took some time before consolidating the entertainment networks after doing the same with the lifestyle-themed nets.

“We needed to test out the model and see whether you can really manage a variety of channels in a cohesive way or it will be mayhem,” she said. Hammer called the creation of the Lifestyle Network group “a tremendous success,” noting the “great turnaround” at E!, proving that the model was “the right way to do things.”

There was another reason to delay the consolidation. “We wanted to take a beat to see where the world is going,” Hammer said. “We saw that linear would still be important but not the only game in town and that content would be the focal point in the future. No matter what happens, what platforms emerge, smart content wins.”

That was the reason behind the decision to bring all scripted development of the division under one roof, overseen by McGoldrick, who has experience running scripted for both USA and Syfy.

The consolidation further made sense as USA moved away from its original blue-sky, frothy brand of scripted programming to edgier fare, illustrated by breakout hit and Golden Globe winner, Mr. Robot. Because of the shift, now a drama project could practically go on either network, USA or Syfy, Hammer said.

It is still in the early days of the reorganization, but Hammer envisions possibly dividing up scripted development by genre vs. network brand as had been the case. “Once a project comes into the door, it will be determined where it lands.”

As for possible eliminations of positions if there are redundancies in the consolidation, Hammer stressed that that has not been on the agenda for making the change. “The goal is to make the structure more nimble and to make decisions faster,” she said.

In his new role, Howe will “balance the creative and the business,” Hammer said, pointing to Howe breaking new ground at Syfy with Defiance, which launched simultaneously as a video game and scripted TV series. “That has been his love and passion — finding new ways to do business,” Hammer said, adding that he will be tasked with “making sure all of the content is monetized to the fullest.”

Here is Hammer’s internal memo: