ESPN Streaming Chief John Lasker to Exit in September
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- John Lasker, a top ESPN streaming executive, plans to leave Disney's sports-media giant in late September, with the decision coming from him personally, according to a person familiar with the matter
- Lasker has worked at ESPN for 27 years, joining in 1999 as a supervisor of sales planning and rising through roles in account sales, program planning, and digital media programming and acquisitions starting in 2006
- Lasker helped develop and launch four major ESPN streaming products: ESPN MobileTV in 2006, ESPN3.com in 2010, WatchESPN in 2011, and ESPN+ in 2018
- Lasker works closely with functional groups across ESPN, Disney+, and Hulu, spanning programming, content acquisition, marketing, ad sales, technology, product, finance, communications, and research and analytics
- Brian Marshall, vice president of sports products and strategy, will oversee Lasker's team on an interim basis
- Rosalyn Durant, executive vice president of programming and acquisitions, called Lasker a figure 'at the forefront of nearly every major iteration and evolution of our streaming business' in a memo to employees
- Before ESPN, Lasker worked at Zenith Media in New York as a media buyer and graduated from Marist College in 1997 with a psychology degree
Why it matters: Lasker built ESPN's streaming playbook from scratch — four products over 12 years — and his exit lands as Disney's direct-to-consumer sports bet grows more critical with each quarter of cable cord-cutting. The interim handoff to Brian Marshall means Disney loses its most tenured streaming architect precisely when the DTC pivot is accelerating.
