Former Apple and Hulu executive Pete Distad is the "top candidate" to lead the new joint streaming venture announced last week by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, according to digital newsletter platform Puck.
The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile reported that Distad, who ran video and sports businesses at Apple before departing last May, is "among the top candidates" for the job.
In addition to serving on the launch team for Apple TV Plus, while also overseeing relationships for Apple with Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball, Distad was around at as a marketing and distribution executive at Hulu when NBC, Fox and Disney hoisted Hulu in 2007.
Also read: Why ‘Re-Bundling Has To Happen’: Breaking Down the New ESPN, TNT Sports and Fox Sports Streaming JV
Last week, Disney, Fox and WBD announced that they are going sell a joint live-streamed bundled of their pay TV sports channels. Leadership or the project is still unannounced, as is a price, launch date and name.
None of the media companies involved in the joint venture are confirming Distad's status at this point. A consultant close to the companies only told us that Distad is only "director level" in terms of stature.
Listing his own Apple title as "Sr. Director, Video/Sports/TV+ Business, Operations, and Distribution," Distad does, however, seem to have the diversity on his resume that the JV partners are looking for: marketing, engineering, relationship-building, etc, etc.
And as the masked consultant we spoke to suggested, none of the three CEOs who made this joint venture "want a super independent person in that role."
