Disney has tapped Kristen Finney for a newly created role where she will lead content curation for the media company’s International Content and Operations Group.
As executive vice present, Finney will be charge of managing the international content strategy across the four regions within Disney’s IC&O (EMEA, Latin America, Asia Pacific and India). She will report to Rebecca Campbell, chairman of international content and operations.
Within her new role, Finney is charged with support and partnering closely with each of the regional content teams to ensure top-notch content is available on Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming services including Disney+, Disney+ Hotstar, Star and Star+, along with Disney’s linear TV channels outside of the U.S.
“Kristen has a proven track record of delivering successful content strategies. This expertise, combined with her skillful ability to build and lead innovative teams, makes her the perfect candidate for this important new role,” said Campbell in a statement. “Her extensive and diverse experience will make her a vital part of our IC&O leadership team.”
The new international content lead comes as Disney continues its international expansion efforts
With its brands, Disney+ is available in 106 countries across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America. At the start of the year the company laid out ambitions plans for an international expansion this summer, including entrance into 42 new countries and 11 new territories.
It’s also seeing momentum in markets like India, where Hotstar has had success and launched with the rebranded Disney+ Hotstar offering in 2020. As TVREV’s Alan Wolk pointed out in a recent column for Fierce – 50.1 million of Disney’s 137.7 million streaming subs are Hotstar subscribers – with the service adding over 4 million customers in the first quarter to make up more than half of Disney’s 7.8 million subscriber gains in the period. (Wolk attributed some of the success to Hotstar being the historical home of the popular Indian Premier League cricket matches, which Disney recently lost out on rights to – read more on why it matters for Disney and competitors here).
As Finney heads up international content she’s also tasked with creating a unified team to keep tabs on evaluate content needs and appropriateness for Disney+ and Star/Star+, Disney said. The team will be “acting as a centralized hub for international content acquisition information, cross-regional licensing opportunities, content slates and pipelines,” according to the announcement. Work will also involve partnering with teams involved in Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution group across streaming services, platform distribution, finance and strategy.
Finney is an internal hire, joining Disney in 2019 and most recently holding the role of EVP of content distribution strategy and development for the platform distribution team within DMED. Before joining The Walt Disney Company, Finney spend more than 15 years at Twentieth Century Fox. Her most recent role there was EVP of Television Distribution where she was responsible for overseeing the content licensing business in Europe, Middle East and Africa. She also led an international team of sales executives in distributing feature films and TV series. Finney and her team were responsible for licensing content to more than 250 linear and SVOD services in over 140 countries.
“The regional teams in IC&O are building a truly impressive slate of engaging and entertaining content, and I look forward to driving strategic opportunities as we aggressively expand these local offerings around the globe,” said Finney in a statement.
In other recent personnel news, Disney’s board of directors voted unanimously last week to extend CEO Bob Chapek’s contract for three years, showing strong confidence despite some recent controversies.