Alex Kaplan is named EVP, Commercial for Eurosport Digital

Discovery Communications has announced the appointment of Alex Kaplan as Executive Vice President, Commercial for Eurosport Digital. Kaplan joins Discovery from senior leadership positions at the National Basketball Association and DIRECTV/AT&T.

In this new role, Kaplan will be responsible for all customer acquisition and retention for Eurosport Digital, including overseeing digital pricing and packaging, digital content strategy, marketing, media buying and planning, events/sponsorship and partnership management. He will report to Paul Guyardo, Discovery’s Chief Commercial Officer. Kaplan will be initially based in Discovery’s New York office traveling frequently to Eurosport’s European offices.

“I had the pleasure of working with Alex for 10 years at DIRECTV so I know first-hand that there’s nobody better to accelerate the revenue and subscriber growth of Eurosport Digital,” said Guyardo. Kaplan will work in partnership with Ralph Rivera, EVP and Managing Director of Eurosport Digital, who also reports to Guyardo, along with the broader Eurosport team.

Most recently, Kaplan served as Senior Vice President, Global Media Distribution for the NBA. In this capacity he was responsible for global direct-to-consumer strategy and business operations, including the NBA’s League Pass OTT platform.

Prior to the NBA, Kaplan spent 10 years at DIRECTV/AT&T, where he led the organisation responsible for DIRECTV Sports and oversaw Revenue and Entertainment products and services, driving more than $4.5B in annual revenue. Kaplan was responsible for the NFL SUNDAY TICKET business, including achieving record subscriber and revenue growth, negotiating the long-term renewal of the package in 2014, and extending the package’s reach by launching SundayTicket.TV, the digital content distribution platform that allows fans to watch NFL games on mobile devices, tablets, gaming consoles and PCs without a Pay-TV subscription.