Amazon Taps Longtime NBCU Exec Krishan Bhatia To Lead New Global Video Ad Sales Team

deadline.com:

Longtime NBC ad sales executive Krishan Bhatia has landed at Amazon as VP, Global Video Advertising Sales, a new position for a new team within ad sales focused on streaming TV offerings across live sports, Amazon Freevee, Twitch, Prime Video ads, and third-party publishers.

He’ll be based in New York and report to Alan Moss, global ad sales vice president. In a note today, Moss said he’s “excited about the impact [Bhatia’s] wealth of experience in the media and advertising business will have for our customers in the streaming TV space.” Video advertising has become increasingly key to Amazon, whose CEO Andy Jassy saluted the company’s progress in the space earlier today in his annual letter to shareholders, noting 24% growth last year to $47 billion.

Amazon has added sponsored TV to the mix, giving advertisers a self-service option that will inject their messages into more than 30 streaming services, including Amazon’s Freevee and Twitch.

Earlier this year, Jassy recalled, Amazon’s Prime Video started including ads on scripted shows and films. He pegged overall reach at 200 million monthly viewers across movies and shows, Amazon MGM originals and live sports including NFL Thursday Night Football. “Streaming TV advertising is growing quickly and off to a strong start,” he wrote.