Disney has appointed Luke Bradley-Jones as senior vice-president, direct-to-consumer, and general manager Europe & Africa for its soon to be launched Netflix rival Disney+.
Bradley-Jones, who joins from Sky where he was UK and Ireland chief marketing officer, will join The Walt Disney Company in early 2020. He will be based out of London and will be responsible for running Disney+ in Europe and Africa, working closely with Ricky Strauss, president of content and marketing at Disney+.
He will report to Jan Koeppen, president of television and direct-to-consumer, Europe & Africa, and Michael Paull, president of Disney Streaming Services. Disney+ is set to launch in the US on 12 November, with launch dates in other markets yet to be confirmed.
At Sky, Bradley-Jones was responsible for brand strategy, product and content marketing, and customer engagement across all Sky TV, broadband and mobile products. During his seven-year tenure at the company, he oversaw the transformation of Sky’s On Demand services, and led the launches of Sky Store, Sky Go Extra, Sky Box Sets and most recently Sky Q. Before that he held senior commercial roles at BBC Worldwide and BBC.com.
Profits at Disney fell 51% to $1.4bn (£1.15bn) in the three months to 29 June, despite a string of movie hits over the period including Aladdin and Avengers: Endgame, which surpassed $1bn in its opening weekend in April and has since become the biggest grossing movie ever.
Disney chairman and chief executive Bob Iger said the results reflected its efforts to "effectively integrate" TV and film assets purchased from 21st Century Fox in March for $71bn. Iger also said Disney+ would be "the most important product that the company has launched" in his two-decade tenure.
It is expected that Disney+ will be bundled with its other streaming services Hulu and ESPN+ when it launches in the US in November for a reported $12.99 a month.
