Spotify has tapped longtime TV exec Liz Gateley, most recently head of programming at Lifetime, as head of creative development focused on original podcast content.
Gateley will oversee Spotify’s original content development teams in New York and Los Angeles and the company’s expansion into podcasting including in comedy, sports, YA fiction and scripted, news/documentaries and additional music formats. She announced her new role Thursday in a post on LinkedIn.
Her hiring comes after Spotify earlier this month launched a big new push into podcasting, spending almost $340 million to acquire producer Gimlet Media and services platform Anchor. The streaming-audio giant said it planned to invest up to $500 million in podcasting in 2019 (including what it paid for for Gimlet and Anchor).
Gateley exited A+E Networks’ Lifetime about a year ago. Prior to joining Lifetime in 2015, she was partners with Tony DiSanto in the DiGa production banner that was behind shows including MTV’s “Teen Wolf”; in 2014, Gateley and DiSanto sold the company to the U.K.’s ITV. Before DiGa, she was a programming exec at MTV where she created “Laguna Beach” and co-created and executive produced its spinoffs, “The Hills” and “The City,” and shepherded other shows for the cable net including “Jersey Shore,” “16 & Pregnant,” “Teen Mom” and “America’s Best Dance Crew.” Gateley had a previous stint at Lifetime prior joining MTV in 2003.
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At Spotify, Gateley is reuniting with chief content officer Dawn Ostroff, who was head of programming at Lifetime from 1996-2002, and Courtney Holt, head of studios and video (with whom Gateley worked when they were both at MTV).
“I am excited to be back in the music/culture world to tell loud stories with my incredible team and to help invent new executions as I always have, but, most importantly, to join at such a transformative time at Spotify on the heels of the Gimlet and Anchor acquisitions,” Gateley wrote in the post. “I also get to work with Dawn Ostroff and Courtney Holt, both former colleagues and two of the smartest people I know.”