WWE Taps DAZN’s Jamie Horowitz As EVP Development & Digital, Expanding Senior Leadership

EXCLUSIVE: WWE has named sports media veteran Jamie Horowitz its EVP Development & Digital, effective immediately, overseeing much original content including scripted and unscripted programs for digital and social media.

He’ll also be responsible for WWE Studios in Los Angeles, whose projects include a docuseries with Netflix about Vince McMahon with Chris Smith (Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened) directing and Bill Simmons (ESPN’s 30 For 30 docu series) exec producing.

Horowitz will be based at WWE’s Stamford, CT headquarters with frequent travel to Los Angeles.

As it expands its leadership, the pro-wrestling powerhouse also named another DAZN exec, Matt Drew as SVP International. Samira Shah was named general counsel.

Horowitz was most recently DAZN’s EVP Global Content, overseeing original programming, social content and editorial strategy. He joined the sports streaming service in 2018. At DAZN, Horowitz partnered with Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions for a series of feature documentaries under the banner One Night, and helped launched 40 Days, a docuseries produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s Uninterrupted that follows the tough eight-week training period ahead of a title fight.

He was previously at Fox and ESPN, where he helped develop sports talk show First Take with Stephen Smith and Skip Bayless, as well as SportsNation.

At WWE International, Drew’s mandate is to grow the company’s brand and business outside of the U.S., manage global media partners and work cross-company to develop its international strategy for live events, digital, consumer products and new revenue sources. At DAZN, Drew was EVP Rights Acquisition, overseeing the rights portfolio and partnerships across the Americas, Europe and Asia and managing relationships with the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, LaLiga, Bundesliga and F1 among others.

Shah most recently served as general counsel of online luxury fashion retailer Moda Operandi. Before that, she spent 20 years as a senior attorney for law firms Cravath, Swaine & Moore and O’Melveny & Myers.

WWE boasts flagship Monday Night RAW on USA Network, SmackDown on Fox and has inked a licensing deal with NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock. The multi-year agreement, which gave Peacock exclusive streaming rights to the WWE Network and its content library in the U.S., was signed early this year and launched in March — and garnered a shout-out from Comcast CEO Brian Roberts during the media conglom’s quarterly earnings call in late April.

Top CAA agent Nick Khan, who was Co-Head of Television, joined client WWE as President & Chief Revenue Officer last summer, reporting directly to WWE chairman & CEO Vince McMahon.