Former Apple exec to head sports venture formed by Disney, Fox, Warner Bros Discovery


FILE PHOTO: The Warner Bros logo is seen during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France, June 22, 2022. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo

(Reuters) - Former Apple executive Pete Distad will be the CEO of the sports streaming joint venture formed by Walt Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and Fox Corp, the media companies said on Friday.

Distad worked at the iPhone maker for about a decade and led teams that launched the Apple TV and the MLS Season Pass. He was also part of the team that launched Hulu, where he spent six years.

He will now assume oversight of all aspects, including overall strategy, distribution and marketing, of the yet-to-be-named sports streaming platform by the media firms.

Distad will report to the joint venture's board, which will include representatives selected by each of the three companies.

The plans for the sports-centric service, which is hoping to get younger viewers, were announced last month.

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said earlier in March the venture, set to be launched this fall, expects to have 5 million subscribers in its first five years.

The addressable market for the venture is expected to be between 50 million and 60 million, Murdoch had said, adding he does not have any concerns about regulatory hurdles about the venture.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!

   

Next In Tech News

Crypto company Tether invests $200 million in brain-chip maker Blackrock Neurotech
EU to probe Meta over handling of Russian disinformation, FT reports
US man charged with sex-related crimes, used Instagram to lure teens
Apple's iPadOS subject to tough EU tech rules, EU says
TikTok creators fear economic blow of US ban
OpenAI to use FT content for training AI models in latest media tie-up
ChatGPT faces Austria complaint for ‘uncorrectable errors’
Social media platform X back up after outages, Downdetector shows
Sleeping Amazon driver’s fatal crash into teacher was preventable, US lawsuit says
Elon Musk’s China trip pays off with key self-driving hurdles cleared

Others Also Read