Vuulr, a digital marketplace for rights to filmed content, has tapped two entertainment industry veterans to expand its presence in mainstream Hollywood.
Former Vudu content head Daniel Gagliardi has joined as senior vice president of development and strategy. Andrew Marshall, who has worked at Disney and NBCUniversal to name a few, joins as head of legal and business affairs. Both will be dedicated to the Americas.
“Great tech on its own is not enough, its needs to be wrapped with great support from industry experts who fully understand the challenges our buyers and sellers face in their business today,” said Ian McKee, Vuulr’s global CEO. “I’m really excited to have Daniel and Andrew onboard as we scale the business.”
Gagliardi will bring his experience as both a buyer and seller to strengthen Vuulr’s position as a rights broker.
“As the content seller who helped drive the global rollout of services like Tubi, Pluto TV, Roku, and others, I know first hand the need for quick, efficient and strategic content licensing,” Gagliardi said. “What excites me most about Vuulr is our ability to transform the business of content licensing, not only with such a large selection of content, but by also offering hyper-local/regional content to help channels and platforms of all types expand around the globe.”
At Vudu, Gagliardi built and led the content partnerships team. During his tenure, the Walmart-owned service debuted its first original television series and film, and commissioned a dozen additional originals. Vudu partnered with hundreds of licensors, including Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, Lionsgate and MGM. He also previously served as vice president of worldwide television at Lionsgate, where he launched the company’s ad-supported licensing team.
Marshall, who Vuulr hailed as a “specialist in the protection and exploitation of intellectual property,” will bring his knowledge of the evolving legal and regulatory commercial landscape for media and entertainment companies.
“Bringing the efficiencies of doing business online is a critical success factor for the industry as it transforms and the new normals emerge. Vuulr is on the leading edge of enabling this change which brings benefits to buyers, sellers and audiences,” Marshall said.
He has previously served general counsel and senioe VP of legal and business affairs at ESPN Star Sports, and before that, as regional counsel for Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia at The Walt Disney Company, with a focus on licensing in theatrical distribution, studio marketing and home entertainment. More recently, he was commercial director at Universal Brand Development, where he grew the character licensing business for NBCUniversal in Southeast Asia.
Vuulr launched in January 2019 as a platform to negotiate and transact directly and securely. The company connects buyers and distributors, regardless of time zone or geography, and provides access to a diverse selection of mainstream and niche content that appeals to global appetites. The Vuulr online sales platform currently features notable content comprising over 23,000 titles and 135,000 hours, spanning 60 genres and 70 languages.