Discovery, which last week laid out its plans for launching its discovery plus streaming service, said it hired Hulu’s Jim Keller as executive VP, digital ad sales and advanced advertising.
Keith Kazerman, who had been promoted to executive VP, digital sales, advanced advertising and research in 2019, is leaving the company.
Keller will report to Discovery’s chief U.S. ad sales officer Jon Steinlauf and be responsible for strategy development of all U.S. digital ad sales including Discovery Plus, the companies TV Everywhere Go apps, VOD, owned sites, programmatic and social.
Discovery plus will have a “light ads” version as well as ad free, similar to Hulu.
“Jim is one of the most experienced advanced advertising sales leaders in the business and he joins Discovery at a critical time, as we launch discovery plus in January and begin scaling our direct-to-consumer advertising opportunities,” said Steinlauf. “Our ambition is to drive both rapid growth in DTC ad sales for Discovery Plus and utilize Jim’s deep expertise to accelerate our advanced advertising and data-driven cross platform sales solutions, while growing Discovery’s high-quality audience, especially with female and family demographics.”
Keller spent nearly seven years at Hulu, most recently as VP, head of national ad sales. Previously he was with NBCUniversal’s Bravo, MTV Networks, NBC Sports & Olympics and Fox Sports Networks.
“Discovery’s quality programming across verticals, combined with top talent and valuable brands, offer a marketing space that is one of the broadest and safest in digital video, which will soon be expanded with the launch of discovery plus,” said Keller. “I am thrilled to be joining a great management team that is methodically preparing to bring to market a world-class product with a ton of opportunities for advertising partners, as well as creating innovative solutions for marketers, as Discovery embarks upon an exciting next chapter.”
