Venu Sports, the upcoming sports streaming partnership between Disney’s ESPN (DIS) and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and FOX (FOXA), announced their full management team on Tuesday.
It was previously announced that Pete Distad, former Apple and Hulu executive, has been appointed CEO of the joint venture.
The team includes former executives from leading entertainment, media, technology, sports and sports betting companies.
Brian Borkowski, who will serve as chief marketing officer, hails from FanDuel. Jessica Cassano Antonellis, senior vice president and chief communications officer, previously led communications at Sirius XM. Tim Connolly, chief business officer, previously led Apple TV+ and MLS Season Pass subscriber growth at Apple.
“Having the opportunity to assemble the core lineup of the management team responsible for building the Venu organization, creating the culture, setting the pace for innovation, and ultimately, driving the growth behind our next service was an incredible opportunity,” Dyestad said.
“We searched for people with an entrepreneurial spirit who could bring diverse perspectives to Venu Sports with experience launching beloved consumer products and growing high-performance teams, and assembled a group of stars in their respective fields.”
The streaming service, announced in February, is scheduled to launch sometime this fall, and comes as media companies face increasing pressure from investors to scale their platforms and achieve profitability.
Venu Sports will combine the rosters of the three companies’ sports networks. Collectively, the new service includes about 55% of sports rights in the United States, according to Citi Research.
According to the platform, the service will be provided directly to consumers via a new application. Subscribers will also have the ability to bundle the product with Disney+, Hulu, or Max.
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