Disney seeks to stop YouTube from hiring veteran to oversee sports and media

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(Reuters) -Walt Disney seeks to stop Alphabet’s YouTube, which announced on Thursday that it has appointed long-time executive Justin Connolly as its global head of media and sports.

Disney filed a lawsuit against YouTube in a state court in Los Angeles late Wednesday to stop the appointment, alleging breach of contract, unfair competition and interference with a contractual relationship.

Disney claimed that YouTube is and has been aware of Connolly’s employment agreement, which required him to work for Disney through at least March 1, 2027. He signed a new three-year contract in November 2024 that gave him a one-time right to terminate it until March 2027.

It seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent Connolly from further breaching the contract.

YouTube did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Connolly will manage the platform’s relationships with major media companies as well as take charge of the company’s growing live-sports portfolio, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The popular video sharing platform has been aggressively pursuing live sports for the past few years, alongside competitors such as Netflix and Amazon, in a bid to take advantage of its massive user base and large sports audience.

YouTube inked a $14 billion NFL streaming deal in 2022, which enables it to stream big football matches, while Amazon and other media firms also rushed to secure big sports streaming deals.

The platform has also expanded beyond traditional video sharing and into live TV, music and podcasts, and generates billions in advertising revenue from its vast content reserves.

Connolly spent over two decades at ESPN and Disney and exited his role as head of platform distribution earlier this week as Disney gears up to launch its ESPN sports streaming platform.

(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala and Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Alan Barona)