Interesting to see News Corp. and NBC announce the hiring of former Amazon.com executive Jason Kilar as CEO.
It’s interesting because he’s very well regarded but I was am surprised they did not go with an advertising guru. Kilar hails from Amazon, where e-commerce reigns supreme but if NewCo. will be aiming for licensing and subscriptions sales , it might miss out the bigger opportunity in advertising. Then again, NWS and NBC are very strong in ad sales, so this might be a matter of filling out the weaknesses. After all, it’s a strong move to go with someone like Kilar who learned the ropes of scaling a comprehensive tech platform… something Amazon.com has had to do for over a decade to meet demand.
Another odd thing: I see NewCo. as having to hammer out a lot of unique deals, whereas Amazon.com distribution seemed more like a cookie cutter approach to dealmaking. Then again, with 98% distribution locked up with existing deals, maybe that’s a bit of a non-issue too.
All in all, I can’t wait to see NewCo. launch, it will either be a helluva property or one of the biggest missed opportunities ever. Though between the two media companies’ resources, you get the idea that once this baby starts to crawl, it will be up and running pretty fast. It’s true that there are more tech unknowns than sales, content and distribution ones so all in all, Kilar might be a great fit.
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