Disney’s upcoming streaming service will be lead by former iTunes director

In 2017, Disney announced it was ending its licensing deal with Netflix, and it would be launching its own streaming service in 2019. The company has announced that it has hired Kevin Swint, a tech executive whose past roles include heading up the movie group at Apple iTunes.

Swint will be building Disney’s SVOD service, announced last year amid the removal of Disney films and TV series from Netflix’s current library. Swint was hired this month and will be directly reporting to BAMTech CEO Michael Paull.

Swint is well acquainted with the world of content streaming: he was an early member of Walmart’s e-commerce team in the early 2000s and helped launch its music downloads site in 2003. Then, he joined Apple’s iTunes team, where he helped expand the store internationally and launch its HD movies and iTunes Extras features before heading to Samsung, where he was the VP of product/content & services and built their Milk Music/Milk Video streaming services.

The streaming service got a major push in 2017, as Disney CEO Bob Iger finally articulated the plans to launch first a stand-alone ESPN service this year and then a non-sports OTT in 2019.

There is no clear picture, as to how this streaming service will maybe impact the acquisition of 20th Century FOX and related media in future years. Maybe Disney will then add the slate of FOX branded films and television shows to their own SVOD, depending on existing contracts with companies such as Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix.

The coming years will surely be a battle for streaming services. Gear up fellas!