Apple has officially hired Timothy D. Twedhal as vice president of product marketing for the Apple TV. Twedahl was the former general manager and director of Amazon’s Fire TV business since 2013.
An Apple spokesperson said that Twerdhal joined the company sometime this month. He will be directly reporting to Greg Joswiak, the VP of marketing for the iPhone, according to Bloomberg.
Twerdhal has rich experience in streaming devices. Even before joining Amazon in 2013, Twerdhal was an executive at Netflix. He was also the vice president of consumer devices for Roku. Twerdhal has also worked for manufacturer Motorola and the media entertainment corporation Time Warner.
Apple’s recruitment of the former head of Fire TV signals the tech giant’s increased efforts on providing more content for its Apple TV set-top box. The former VP of product marketing for Apple TV, Pete Distad, is said to have been placed in a new role wherein he will be negotiating media content deals.
The Apple TV isn’t doing so well in the market. It was reported last week that the sales for the set-top box’s latest iteration, which was launched back in 2015, decreased year-over-year from 2015 holiday quarter to the 2016 holiday quarter. The Apple TV only represents just over 5 percent of Apple’s sales in fiscal 2016.
In order to get more consumers to buy the device, Apple is now focusing on getting more content on the Apple TV. Distad will now be joining Eddie Cue in negotiating content deal offers with TV networks and film studios.
Apple has been planning to launch its own streaming service for years now, but the tech giant is having trouble getting deals from studios and networks. Last month, an insider source claimed that Apple was working on its own original shows including the production of a 16-episode “Carpool Karaoke” series and a reality program titled “Planet of the Apps.” The two shows might premier this year, but will only be available to stream on Apple Music, the company’s own $9.99/a month music streaming service.
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