The media and entertainment industry was rife with leadership changes in the first three months of 2024, continuing a trend seen in late 2023. New high-level hires were made by companies from Netflix (NFLX) to Apple (AAPL) to replace key outgoing executives or execute new strategies.
Apple and Amazon (AMZN) hired veterans from traditional media giants as they pivot to advertising through their streaming services. Axel Springer, the publisher of Business Insider and Politico, opened its first U.S. headquarters and hired a roster of executives.
Here are the most notable media exec moves in the first quarter of the year.
Netflix hired a new film chief
Netflix’s film chairman Scott Stuber announced his resignation in January after seven years with the streaming giant. He officially left in March to start his own production company. Stuber was replaced by Dan Lin, whose studio Rideback produced the new live action adaptation of Avatar the Last Airbender.
In other content news, Netflix also hired a new head of unscripted series in the first quarter: Jeff Gaspin. Gaspin was the chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment from 2009 to 2011 and had worked on nonfiction content for Netflix, including the docuseries The Tinder Swindler.
WBD, Disney and Fox picked a leader for sports joint venture
The three media giants announced in February that they would release a joint sports streaming platform to combine all of their sports offerings. Though the name of the service is still unknown, former Apple and Hulu executive Pete Distad was picked on Mar. 15 to lead the new product as CEO. The joint venture is expected to launch this fall.
Apple hired Big Media execs to build out its advertising business
Apple is expanding its advertising business for Apple TV+, with its latest hire being NBCUniversal advertising veteran Joseph Cady, according to Business Insider. The company has made other recent ad hires, including Chandler Taylor and Jacqueline Bleazey.
Apple’s services division, which includes AppleTV+, reached 1 billion subscribers at the end of 2023. The streaming platform doesn’t yet have an ad-supported tier, but the new hires indicate this could change soon.
Axel Springer filled its U.S. roster
The German media company owns Business Insider and Politico, but didn’t have an American executive team until this year, when the company opened its U.S. headquarters in New York City. Axel Springer is shifting to prioritize its presence in the U.S. to compete with the biggest digital news companies here. The U.S. team has ten executives, including chief operating officer Gabriel Brotman and head of U.S. government affairs Amelia Binder.
Amazon Prime hired a new ad chief from Disney
Amazon launched an ad-tier Prime Video subscription in January and brought in new advertising strategists to execute the change. The new head of advertising for Prime Video, Jeremy Helfanz, came from The Walt Disney Company (DIS)’s direct-to-consumer sector, leading advertising platform strategy for Disney+, ESPN and Hulu. He also worked at Hulu as head of advertising platforms before he took on the broader role.
Nhari Djan
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