ESPN-Fox-WBD joint sports venture names ex-Apple exec as CEO

ESPN-Fox-WBD joint sports venture names ex-Apple exec as CEO

The new sports streaming partnership among Disney's ESPN (DIS), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), and Fox (FOXA) just found its new CEO: former Apple and Hulu executive Pete Distad.

Distad, who most recently served as an executive at Apple (AAPL) for a decade following six years at Disney's Hulu, will assume oversight of all aspects of the joint venture, including overall strategy, distribution, marketing, and sales, according to a press release.

The streaming service, announced last month, is set to debut sometime this fall and comes at a time when media companies are facing increased pressure from investors to scale their platforms and achieve profitability.

The unnamed platform will bring together the three companies' respective slates of sports networks. Collectively, the new service encompasses about 55% of US sports rights, according to Citi Research.

"Pete is an accomplished innovator and leader who has extensive experience with launching and growing new video services," the three companies said in a joint statement. "We are confident he and his team will build an extremely compelling, fan-focused product for our target market."

While at Apple, Distad was responsible for the business, operations, and global distribution of the tech giant's video and sports efforts, including the launch of streaming service Apple TV+.

Notably, he helped scale the fledgling platform as it worked to compete with more established players. He was also involved in Apple's eventual $2.5 billion acquisition of MLS season pass in 2022.

"This is an incredible opportunity to build and grow a differentiated product that will serve passionate sports fans in the US outside of the traditional pay TV bundle," Distad said in the release. "I’m excited to be able to pull together the industry-leading sports content portfolios from these three companies to deliver a new best-in-class service."

Earlier this month, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said the service will be priced on the higher end of estimates with subscribers expected to hit around 5 million by 2029. Wall Street has estimated the price point will come in between $40 and $50 a month.

The companies have yet to reveal when they will release exact pricing information.