Disney Hires Sky Exec Luke Bradley-Jones For Key International Streaming Role

The international roll-out of Disney+ is moving a step closer with the appointment of Sky exec Luke Bradley-Jones to a lead role in Europe and Africa.

Bradley-Jones, who has been Chief Marketing Officer for Sky in the UK and Ireland, becomes SVP, Direct To Consumer and General Manager of Disney+ for Europe and Africa. He will start in early 2020.

Reporting to Jan Koeppen, President of Television and D2C for Europe and Africa, and Michael Paull, president of Disney streaming services, he will be based in London and will help guide the Hollywood studio’s plans to launch the service outside of the U.S. in 2020.

At Comcast-owned Sky, he was responsible for brand strategy, product and content marketing across Sky TV, broadband and mobile products. He led the launches of Sky Store, Sky Go Extra, Sky Box Sets and most recently Sky Q.

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The hire comes after we revealed in June that Disney has hired former Netflix exec Matt Brodlie as senior vice president, International Content Development, reporting to Ricky Strauss, president, Content & Marketing, Disney+. Brodlie will lead international content development for Disney+, and will be responsible for developing the content strategy for all non-US markets, determining what content needs to be produced or acquired for the service beyond the U.S. content slate.

The appointment of Bradley-Jones represents another coup for the studio. Before joining Sky, he spent five years at BBC Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial arm, initially joining as Head of Strategy before rising to MD of BBC.com and Global iPlayer. He spent two years in the U.S. where he launched BBC.com and built out a digital VOD business through partnerships with Apple, Netflix, Xbox and Yahoo.

Disney+ is set to launch in the U.S. in November and the studio has already unveiled a raft of programming including Star Wars spinoff series The Mandalorian, a Lady And The Tramp reboot and projects from the Marvel Universe as well as Diary of a Female President. Last week, Bob Iger revealed it was “reimaging” feature films including Home Alone and Night At The Museum for the service. The studio also revealed an eye-catching bundle price of $12.99 for Disney+, Hulu’s basic on-demand tier and ESPN+.