Three-year-old Scener, a startup that enables communal viewing of TV series and films that live on top streaming services, has nabbed a slew of high-profile executives and investors to steward its next chapter of growth.
The company has tapped founding Hulu exec David Baron to serve as its next CEO, and added filmmaker J.J. Abrams, Tinder founder Sean Rad, and former WME global music head Marc Geiger to a newly-formed strategic advisory board and investor group. At the same time, Richard Wolpert – a longtime angel investor and entrepreneur – has been named Scener’s executive chairman.
Scener seeks to add a social layer on top of streaming TV shows and movies. The platform-agnostic service – accessible through a free Google Chrome extension – has hosted 7 million such events in 2021 for programming that lives on Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video, HBO Max, and YouTube. The platform provides a synchronized video playback sessions with the ability to be on video or text chat with fellow viewers.
Earlier this year, Justice League director Zach Snyder hosted a viewing part on Scener that attracted 30,000 attendees in real time, according to the company.
“Consumers are now demanding both simplicity and social connection in their viewing experiences,” Baron — who formerly served as Hulu’s VP and head of content business operations and digital supply chain — said in a statement. “Imagine having a service in the cloud that provides access to all of your streaming entertainment options, is natively social and portable across all devices, all without an additional hardware device or dongle.”
Baraon was at Hulu for 14, years, during which time he helped launch its Live TV service. He will succeed Daniel Strickland, Scener’s founder, CEO, and CTO, who will continue on in his role as CTO.
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