Josh McIvor has been promoted to global general manager of MGM+, the Amazon-owned streamer that relaunched in January after previously being known as Epix.
As global general manager, he will report to Chris Brearton, who serves as vice president of Prime Video Studios corporate strategy, and work alongside Michael Wright, head of MGM+, as well as Laura Sher, head of MGM+ business operations, and Peter Lops, head of MGM+ finance. based in Seattle, he will oversee the U.S. and international MGM+ business and its continued expansion, guiding long-term strategic planning, P&L management, distribution strategy, operations and commercial deals.
McIvor enters the role one decade into his tenure at Amazon, which he joined in 2013. He began in Amazon’s music business before moving to Amazon Prime Video in 2016. Most recently, he led Amazon Prime Video’s international expansion strategy, building out localized content and marketing plans for the streaming platform in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He reported to Kelly Day, vice president of Prime Video International. Prior to working at Amazon, McIvor was at Sony Music in Europe.
Brearton announced McIvor’s promotion on Tuesday in a memo to MGM+ staffers, which you can read below.
Hi team,
What an incredible start to the year we’ve had at MGM+! Since our relaunch in the U.S. in January, we’ve seen significant growth in subscribers, awareness, and engagement. Given this success, we doubled down and relaunched our international service as MGM+ in several European countries last week. Our recent new content releases are delighting customers. In the U.S., Season 2 of “From” has quickly become one of our most streamed series ever. In Europe, our new strategic partnership with Lionsgate has provided a great slate of exclusive shows, including “Power Book II: Ghost” Season 3 and “The Great” Season 3, which both launched exclusively on MGM+ in select European countries. Since the relaunch, and by delivering these quality and exclusive content titles to our customers, we’ve seen significant growth in MGM+ subscribers globally, which is really thrilling to see. All the progress this year is entirely due to the hard work and passion of the entire MGM+ team, and I wanted to thank you all for helping drive this significant business growth.
This is just the beginning of our next chapter. We have big aspirations for MGM+ to represent both a century of iconic film and television and a destination for groundbreaking storytelling. We intend to capitalize on our current momentum and bring the U.S. and international offerings together as a truly unified global service. To help us achieve that aim, I’m pleased to announce that Josh McIvor will be joining the MGM+ team effective immediately as our global general manager. Josh will join Michael Wright, head of MGM+, who will both report directly to me. Josh and Michael will work closely with Laura Sher, head of MGM+ business operations and Peter Lops, head of MGM+ finance, to form the core strategy team for our U.S. operations. Josh will oversee the U.S. and international MGM+ business and its continued expansion and integration into a global service, guiding the leadership team on long-term strategic planning, P&L management, distribution strategy, operations and our commercial deals. A key part of Josh’s role will be working hand-in-hand with our internal partner teams including product & tech, licensing, devices and distribution to ensure that MGM+ continues to be prioritized as an important part of Prime Video and Amazon.
Josh has 20+ years’ experience in media and technology. Prior to joining Amazon, Josh led corporate and digital business development for Sony Music in Europe. He joined Amazon in 2013 on the music team, where he managed U.S. label relations and international expansion. He moved to Prime Video in 2016 to facilitate the expansion of Prime Video Channels internationally. In 2019, he moved into a general manager role for Prime Video Canada and Australia, and scaled out the teams in Sydney and Toronto. Since 2021, he led Prime Video’s international expansion strategy; built out the localized content and marketing plans for Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East; and established our teams in Singapore, Cape Town and Dubai. Most recently, Josh has been working on long-term strategy planning for Prime Video International.
Josh’s background in scaling digital media services internationally and a decade of experience in Amazon media businesses are going to be great assets to the team. Josh is based in Seattle but will travel frequently to spend time in our offices in NYC, LA and London. Please join me in welcoming Josh to the MGM+ family!
Thanks,
Chris
