Amazon Raids Disney for Executive to Oversee Advertising on Prime Video
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Amazon has tapped a Disney veteran to lead its new push into the streaming ad wars. Jeremy Helfand, who rose from a position at Hulu to supervise all advertising sales across Disney’s interactive businesses will take the reins as a vice president and head of sales efforts for Amazon’s Prime Video, the executive disclosed in a post on Linkedin on Thursday.
Spokespersons for Amazon Prime Video and Disney confirmed the hire in response to queries by Variety. Amazon is expected to debut a new ad-supported tier on Prime Video in the next few weeks, and it may have great reach from the start, That’s because the company plans to make an ad-supported subscription plan the default level for all users.
Those who want to watch programs ad-free will have to pay an extra fee per year., During his time at Hulu and Disney, Helfand helped launch new ad formats bespoke to the world of streaming, including so-called “pause ads” that surface only when a user chooses to halve the action to take a break.
The move is the latest in what appears to be a grab for ad-sales veterans to run the latest battles of the media industry’s streaming wars.
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