Amazon Studios exec Vernon Sanders admits he wasn’t sold on the idea of releasing Season 4 of Emmy-winning Prime Video comedy “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” over multiple weeks. The binge drop had worked for the show in the past, so why mess with it?It was creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and fellow exec producer Daniel Palladino who lobbied hard to make the change, and spread the show’s release out rather than all at once. “Our first reaction was, ‘Oh, we don’t think...
The Walt Disney Company
Michael
Paull
President, Direct-To-Consumer
Paull oversees the business and operational functions for Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Star+, including marketing, technology, data science, customer service and content curation. The ex-Amazon exec joined Disney in 2017 with the acquisition of MLB-founded streaming services provider Bamtech Media, where he was CEO. At Disney, Paull has deftly managed the rapid growth of Disney+, which in less than three years has exploded to 164 million subscribers (as of October 2022) and boosted the take rate for the Disney Bundle. His next big test: launching Disney+ Basic, the ad-supported version of the Mouse House’s flagship streamer — first in the U.S. in December and then taking it global. There’s also talk of Disney+ broadening its offering into a membership plan that includes perks in the company’s theme parks business.