Discovery has hired Hulu’s head of marketing, Patrizio “Pato” Spagnoletto, naming him global chief marketing officer, direct-to-consumer.
The Los Angeles-based Spagnoletto will help lead the expansion of Discovery Plus, the SVOD service launched by the company in early January.
Spagnoletto will oversee a marketing group that aims to drive adoption of the streaming service across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. His broad responsibilities will include subscriber acquisition, retention and growth, media and analytics, brand awareness, marketing creative development and strategy, and consumer insights.
Also read: Discovery Plus Launches Monday with Full Major Platform Support
He’ll also work in partnership with U.S. networks and local international marketing teams to leverage all of Discovery’s assets and further drive Discovery Plus growth.
Spagnoletto will report to JB Perrette, president and CEO of Discovery International.
"Pato helped Hulu more than triple subscribers during his tenure and has experience with direct-to-consumer entertainment, sports and linear channels, which is a perfect match for our different Discovery Plus offerings around the world. We have enormous ambition for discovery+ and believe Pato is uniquely qualified to help us scale globally,” Perrette said in a statement.
Spagnoletto spent more than 11 years at Yahoo and joined Hulu in 2016 as VP of subscriber growth. Appointed head of marketing in June, he oversaw the company’s marketing efforts and was critical in the subscriber growth across both the SVOD and live TV businesses.
He departs Hulu with the streaming service's upper ranks still re-organizing under Disney direct-to-consumer.
Discovery Plus launched Jan. 4. Discovery hasn't yet offered a status update on subscriber growth, but the company reports fourth-quarter and full-2020 earnings on Monday.
