A SiriusXM executive in charge of the satellite and streaming radio service’s live sports shows and events is leaving the company.
Steve Cohen has worked as the senior vice president of sports programming since 2004. He was promoted at Sirius Satellite Radio that year after launching the company’s NFL Radio and College Sports Radio channels. Sirius merged with rival XM Satellite Radio in 2009.
“His contacts, knowledge of the sports industry, and ability to think outside the box makes him the perfect choice for this position,” Jay Clark, Sirius’ head of programming, said in a press release at the time of his promotion.
Cohen was instrumental in building SiriusXM’s dominance as the leading platform for live sports radio, maintaining deals with the National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, Formula 1, NASCAR and other professional sports brands for national play-by-play broadcasts and analysis programming.
Eric Spitz, SiriusXM’s vice president of sports programming, will be promoted to the senior vice president role upon Cohen’s departure. Cohen will serve as an independent consultant for SiriusXM and assist with the transition.
Meanwhile, Cohen intends to focus on a charity called Shaina’s Wish that he started with his wife after their daughter, Shaina, died in 2017. The charity works with people who are afflicted with mental health disorders, alcohol dependency and substance abuse problems.
Cohen’s departure comes less than two weeks after SiriusXM announced it would lay off nearly 500 workers as part of a large-scale, cost-cutting and organizational restructuring strategy. Officials familiar with Cohen’s departure said it was his decision to leave SiriusXM and was not part of the company’s layoff plan.
