Overseeing the launch of ESPN+ will be one of the first items on Pitaro's to-do listESPN Images
Jimmy Pitaro beat out at least five internal candidates to become ESPN’s eighth and newest president. Pitaro, who has headed up Disney’s consumer products and interactive media group since ’16, will report to Disney Chair & CEO Bob Iger. Pitaro replaces John Skipper, who resigned in December citing a substance abuse problem. Former ESPN President George Bodenheimer took over as interim president for a 90-day period while Iger interviewed for a permanent replacement and ended up being on the job for only 77 days. Iger picked Pitaro over several internal candidates, including ESPN Exec VP/Affiliate Sales & Marketing Justin Connolly, Exec VP/Content Connor Schell, Exec VP/Programming & Scheduling Burke Magnus and Exec VP/Int'l Russell Wolff. Disney Senior Exec VP/Chief Strategy Officer Kevin Mayer also was in the mix to replace Skipper for a while. Sources said that Iger is close with the 48-year-old Pitaro and had wanted him to get more involved in ESPN’s business over the past year, but Skipper resisted. Ultimately, Iger was swayed that Pitaro’s background in digital media, sports and consumer products would be a good fit for a sports media company trying to navigate a new media world. As noted by the N.Y. Times, Disney’s consumer products division is the world’s largest licenser of consumer products but a small division within Disney. One of the first items on Pitaro's to-do list will be to oversee the important launch of ESPN+, which is coming later this spring. Pitaro also will need to decide how to approach sports rights renewals, which are right around the corner: ESPN’s NFL and MLB deals end in ’21. Pitaro, based in southern California most of his career, seems like an obvious choice in many respects. He is well known in sports circles, having guided Yahoo Sports through a period of impressive growth from '06-09. He has established relationships with executives throughout the business and has long been considered a fast riser at Disney, where he was known as a personable and strategic executive. Pitaro was named to SBJ/SBD’s '09 “Forty Under 40” class.
