Tennis Channel CEO Jeff Blackburn, On His Segue From Amazon’s “Everything Store” To A Media Company With “Crazy-Intense Focus”
Jeff Blackburn, a former Amazon executive who helped build Prime Video and other key divisions, has become CEO of the Tennis Channel, a role that reunites his professional expertise with his personal passion for tennis. Under his leadership, the network has seen record viewership and streaming growth, despite not holding rights to the sport's four major tournaments. Blackburn emphasizes a strategy of intense focus, drawing from his experience at Amazon where specialized, dedicated companies like Zappos and Audible succeeded through deep category concentration.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Jeff Blackburn Courtesy Jeff Blackburn had a prolific 24-year run at Amazon, helping create and build Prime Video, Amazon Studios, Amazon Music and leading the company’s push into advertising. Prior to the “everything store,” though, he was a former high school tennis standout who came to recognize that a passion for the sport and the long hours required by a famously hard-driving tech culture were incompatible. The exec’s personal and professional backgrounds officially fused last year when he was named CEO of the Tennis Channel by Sinclair, which paid $350 million to acquire it in 2016. After dropping tennis in order to play linebacker on Dartmouth’s football team, Blackburn “gave up the racket,” as he puts it, for 25 years. “I missed it so much, but was working so hard,” he recalls.
…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Deadline.
Discussion
0 commentsMore from Deadline
