Google-owned streaming platform YouTube has poached a senior DIRECTV executive to lead the growth of its media and sports partnerships, The Desk has learned.
The executive, Austin Gaddis, will help YouTube build out its media and sports business at a time when the platform is investing heavily in the growth of its YouTube TV cable alternative and more live sports content for YouTube and YouTube TV alike.
Gaddis joins YouTube after serving as the Associate Vice President of Legal and Content at DIRECTV for nearly five years. He also worked in legal-focused roles for Layer3, the Walt Disney Company and T-Mobile during his career, after serving as a legal intern for the U.S. Senate.
During his time at DIRECTV, Gaddis helped the company wind through the complications of short-term and long-term media deals alike, including its agreements with the major broadcast networks and independent TV station owners like Nexstar, Sinclair, Gray Media and TEGNA. His work covered DIRECTV’s traditional satellite product, its streaming platform and legacy U-Verse operation.
That experience will translate well at YouTube, where the company has similar agreements with the broadcast networks and local TV station owners for YouTube TV. YouTube has also forged agreements with the National Football League (NFL) and other sports and content stakeholders to better position YouTube as a destination for premium live events, and it resells access to streaming services like Paramount Plus and Starz that involve complicated arrangements of their own.
“In this new capacity, I’m leaving the day-to-day practice of law to focus squarely on the business of media and sports: managing relationships, structuring deals, and identifying growth opportunities on the world’s largest video platform,” Gaddis said in a statement on Monday. “It’s an incredible time to be in this space, and I’m so excited to dive into this new role.”
YouTube is a significant business for Google: The platform accounts for 11 to 13 percent of time spent with TV in any given month, according to regular reports from Nielsen. The service also generates between 10 and 15 percent of Google’s overall income in any given quarter, according to an analysis of financial earnings by The Desk. During the third quarter (Q3) of last year, YouTube’s advertising and subscription business generated $10.3 billion of Google’s $102.4 billion in revenue. Google parent Alphabet will disclose its Q4 and full-year earnings in February.
