Apple has hired former Amazon Fire TV head Timothy Twerdahl to run its Apple TV division, in an effort to revive its streaming media business. Twerdahl will be in charge of both product and marketing, as reported by Bloomberg.
Twerdahl will be reporting to Greg Joswaik, vice president for iOS, iPhone and iPad. Pete Distad, who formerly held the position, will now negotiating content deals under Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.
Twerdahl had been at Amazon since 2013, where he successfully launched the company’s Fire TV media streaming box. Before that, he was working with Netflix on the team that was spun out into Roku and then Twerdhal worked as VP at WIMM labs, the start-up that was acquired by Google in 2013. Twerdahl’s Linkedin page says he joined Apple this month.
Apple TV has barely changed since its launch, although last year it got a major reboot in the form of a new TV app and single sing-on functionality in tvOS 10. But it might not be enough. It still lags behind rival streaming devices from the likes of Roku, Amazon and Google.
The move could suggest that Apple is renewing its focus on getting more content on Apple TV, something the company has been struggling for quite sometime. The iPhone maker has been rumored to be working on its own original content and even held talks with media companies. Reports surfaced last year that Apple was one of the “possible suitors” to acquire Time Warner, the cable company that owns CNN and HBO, among other channels.
It remains to be seen whether Timothy Twerdahl will be enough to reboot Apple TV business, but it seems that the Tim Cook-led company is in no mood to give up just yet.
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