Firstlight Media creates accelerator to stimulate growth of OTT services

Paul Pastor, a member of the Disney Hulu launch team and most recently co-founder of OTT services in North America and Europe, will lead this initiative.

Firstlight Media has launched a new initiative to incubate and accelerate the growth of scalable OTT services, which will be led by the company's audience strategy and experience leader Walt Disney y Discovery Communications, Paul Pastor.

Pastor, a member of the Disney Hulu launch team and most recently co-founder of OTT services in North America and Europe, will spearhead faster growth of the streaming ecosystem by ensuring aspiring Tier 1 providers as well as Firstlight Media's current and future Tier 1 clients have access to the technology, knowledge and strategic drivers of business success.

Firstlight Media has become a leader in delivering cloud-based OTT infrastructure that powers some of the most iconic video applications and platforms.

Andre Christensen, CEO and co-founder of Firstlight Media, highlights that "Paul Pastor's unlimited vision of what engagement with television can be and his understanding of how to bring that to viewers have driven the growth of networks throughout his career. Our OTT accelerator will extend the value of Firstlight Media beyond top-tier clients, leveraging Paul's success with big brands and his business experience to benefit new entrants who are on top-tier trajectories."

In his role as chief business officer and co-founder of Firstlight Media, Pastor will lead multiple disciplines, including business and corporate development, sales, marketing and others, that can advance the objectives of OTT providers.

Pastor will leverage his extensive experience in the direct-to-consumer market: He was Disney ABC's investment and operations leader for The Walt Disney Company's Hulu investment. More recently, he has co-founded two next-generation streaming entries: TVPASS, an aggregation service that allows consumers to seamlessly discover and consume content from multiple SVOD providers; and Unite Broadcast Ventures, a branded SaaS OTT platform to support streaming joint ventures in the European local market.

Durante ocho años en Disney, Pastor ascendió a vicepresidente senior de estrategia y análisis de clientes. Aprovechó los grupos de gestión de relaciones con los clientes, investigación y planificación de medios del equipo para obtener conocimientos que aumentaron la audiencia en las propiedades de transmisión, cable y OTT de Disney. En Discovery, como vicepresidente ejecutivo de estrategia, ingresos y operaciones, administró el P&L de la cartera, se asoció en la entrega de clasificaciones récord para las redes principales y dirigió un galardonado equipo de medios sociales.

“As industry trends accelerate toward OTT services, media companies are quickly discovering that content alone does not ensure success. The goal of our acceleration initiative is to provide OTT services of all sizes with what they need to compete and win: scalable product, data and technology that can reduce customer acquisition costs and customer churn, optimize consumer lifetime value and ensure long-term growth,” said Pastor.