Apple hires former Disney and Quibi exec, likely to help Apple TV+ grow

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Apple TV+ 2020
Apple TV+ 2020 (Image credit: Bryan M. Wolfe / iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple TV has a new TV-related hire.
  • Former Disney and Quibi exec Tim Connolly is now part of the team.
  • He was the "dealmaker" at his former companies.

Apple has reportedly hired former Disney and Quibi "dealmaker" Tim Connolly to its Apple TV division. The Telelgraph notes that the former executive's LinkedIn profile has been updated to reflect his new job.

Unfortunately, it doesn't specifically say what he will be doing as part of the Apple TV. But The Telegraph says that his former roles at both Disney and Quibi were all about bringing new content on board and setting up subscription bundles. Two things Apple TV+ would presumably benefit from in the future.

Mr Connolly helped launch the live TV offering from Disney's Hulu internet video service, striking deals that brought major networks on board. He also helped engineer a deal with Spotify to sell Hulu and the streaming service as a bundle.He was one of the most senior executives at Quibi, the mobile-only streaming app led by Hollywood veteran Jeffrey Katzenberg and former HP and eBay boss Meg Whitman, running partnerships and advertising, but left before the service launched earlier this year.

Apple TV+ is said to be looking to increase its collection of first-party TV shows and movies while talk of subscription bundles continues. Deals that could include Apple TV Channels make sense, and that would presumably be right in Connolly's wheelhouse.

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Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.