Amazon Sports VP Marie Donoghue to Exit
Marie Donoghue, Prime Video’s vice president of global sports video, is exiting the company after five years at the Amazon-owned streamer, an individual familiar with the matter told TheWrap.
Donoghue was hired to help oversee Prime Video’s global sports strategy and was instrumental in the tech giant’s efforts to acquire the rights to “Thursday Night Football” in 2022. According to Nielsen, the 2023 season of “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video registered a 24% increase among total viewers over the previous season (11.86 million viewers versus 9.58 million).
In addition to TNF, Prime Video’s sports lineup also includes regular-season WNBA basketball games, mixed martial arts events from One Championship and more.
During TheWrap’s 2023 Power Women Summit in December, Donoghue spoke about how her intention to bring women behind the scenes of big content deals with female athletes has shaped her work and why “having more women in the room is helpful.”
“I’m in a position now where I own making sure we have women, making sure we have diversity. I’ve thrown my body in front of hirings to make sure we’re being intentional in front of the camera, behind the camera, in the offices where decisions are made,” Donoghue said at the time. “We have to be really intentional about it.”
“Obviously, I’ve appreciated and known the value in sports forever,” she continued. “I honestly think what’s helping now is there are women in buying positions. You see that sponsorship for the [National Women’s Soccer League] we just did a few weeks ago? There are women in those buying positions, and they’re owning it. They want the association with female athletes and women’s sports. It will always be a little harder, at least for the foreseeable future, but let’s just own it and support each other.”
Prior to Amazon, Donoghue spent over 18 years with ESPN in various roles, including executive VP of global business and content strategy and senior VP of global strategy, business affairs and development.
In addition to Amazon, Donoghue has served as a board member at YES Network since 2019.
Representatives for Amazon declined to comment. A spokesperson for Donoghue did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
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