Peacock chooses Netflix Hulu Vets for senior marketing, programming post

NBCUniversal has added two broadcast veterans to its Peacock executive roster, appointing Shannon Willett as chief marketing officer and Brian Henderson as executive vice president of programming. Both are newly created positions in the company.

Willett arrived on NBCU from Netflix, while Henderson was on Hulu.

Both reports will be presented to Peacock President Kelly Campbell.

NBCU and its parent company, Comcast, have pledged to increase programming costs and focus more on purchasing Peacock’s premium subscribers. Launched in mid-2020, the service was initially focused on its ad-supported free tier, rather than the $ 5-per-month Peacock Premium. Over time, with the addition of the WWE network, extensive live sports programming, and finally the release of delayed pandemic shows like Bel-Air, NBCU has begun to see some early progress in its attempt to attract subscribers. However, Churn remains a challenge for Peacock, as it is for any player in the streaming game.

Comcast said in January that Peacock had reached 24.5 million monthly active customers, ahead of the company’s initial forecasts. About 9 million of them pay for Peacock Premium, while another 7 million have it bundled with other pay TV or broadband services. This paid base is a small fraction of new entrants like Disney + and HBO Max and follows Netflix, which has 222 million subscribers worldwide. Average revenue per customer, or ARPU, was approaching $ 10 at the end of 2021, thanks in part to Peacock’s advertising component. The plan is to be able to get more revenue from subscriptions, especially considering that the advertising limit is 5 minutes per hour, which is about a third of what happens on a traditional line TV.

“We are delighted to welcome Shannon and Brian, two distinguished leaders who will play key roles in transforming Peacock into an essential streaming service and building our executive management team,” Campbell said in a press release. “Shannon is a fantastic strategic marketer, a brand definition, with an incredible portfolio of the best global campaigns and her experience will be crucial for the next phase of Peacock’s growth. And as a pioneer in the evolution of streaming content, Brian will be invaluable as we continue to expand our content offerings and establish Peacock as the mainstream entertainment streaming service on the market. ”

As a CMO, Willett oversees Peacock Global Marketing, which covers areas such as brand management, creativity, media planning, marketing operations, social media, content marketing, customer growth and service. customers. His six years at Netflix ended with his tenure as vice president of global marketing strategy and operations. During her time with the company, she led creative marketing campaigns and a global team of 250 global employees.

In his role as programmer, Henderson will lead the global content strategy for Peacock, which aims to leverage the influence of programming to facilitate acquisition, use, retention and the business as a whole. The authority of him includes licensed, original, international and developing content.

As Senior Vice President of SVOD Content, Programming and Partnership at Hulu, Henderson led content acquisition and planning.