Bloomberg reports Apple has hired Timothy D. Twerdahl, the general manager and director of Amazon’s Fire TV business, to be VP of Apple TV product marketing. Twerdahl made the move to Apple earlier this month.
… He had been general manager and director of Amazon’s Fire TV business since 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile. At Apple, Twerdahl reports to Greg Joswiak, a vice president in charge of marketing for the iPhone, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The move suggests Apple may be refocusing its efforts with their streaming box, possibly making moves to provide more content for it. Pete Distad, the former head of Apple TV product marketing, will now be able to focus on acquiring content for the Apple TV, working with Eddy Cue in an effort to make deals. Distad was previously the senior vice president of content distribution at Hulu.
Apple had been working to provide a television streaming service to compete with traditional cable and satellite programming bundles. However, negotiations stalled when content and cable companies took umbrage at Apple’s “assertive” and “hard-nosed” negotiating tactics.
Twerdahl brings with him significant experience with streaming TV devices and content. Prior to his days at Amazon, he served as an executive at Netflix Inc. and was later vice president in charge of consumer devices at Roku.
