Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) and Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) on May 12 announced that Marcien Jenckes has been selected to lead the operators' recently announced streaming platform joint venture, which will develop and offer a next-generation streaming platform option on a variety of branded 4K streaming devices and smart TVs.
Comcast will license Flex, its aggregated streaming platform and hardware to the joint venture, and also contribute its XClass TV retail business, as well as contributing Xumo, an ad-supported streaming service it acquired in 2020. Charter will make an initial contribution of $900 million to the joint venture, funded over multiple years.
After closing, in this new role, Jenckes will focus on leading the streaming platform's executive team as its president, developing business and monetization models.
“Marcien has been an outstanding leader within our company for over a decade,” said Dave Watson, CEO of Comcast Cable. “His blend of experience as an entrepreneur, as an expert in improving customers’ entertainment experience, and an innovator in the rapidly changing advertising environment, makes him uniquely qualified to helm this partnership with Charter.”
Jenckes has served as president of Advertising for Comcast Cable since 2017. Prior to this role, he was responsible for Comcast Cable’s residential lines of business, including video and internet.
“Marcien has emerged as a leading voice within the media industry,” commented Tom Rutledge, Charter's chairman and CEO. “He has a future-focused view of the landscape, understands the importance of this partnership and is a great choice to lead the joint venture.”
According to a Comcast statement, in his prior positions, Jenckes "led the strategy, development, and deployment of innovative technologies and services across all categories to provide great experiences for tens of millions of customers." In 2019, Jenckes spearheaded "On Addressable," along with Charter and Cox, designed to bring additional scale and momentum to addressable television advertising.
He also pioneered Blockgraph, first incubated within Comcast’s FreeWheel, an advertising technology company serving the video and television ecosystem, before spinning out as a joint venture between Comcast, Charter and Paramount (formerly ViacomCBS), to help marketers use audience insights for TV and premium video advertising.
Before joining Comcast, Jenckes was an entrepreneur, involved with a host of digital advertising and media syndication start-ups including Grab Networks and Voxant. He also held a variety of leadership roles at AOL Inc., where he launched AOL’s free web services, including the free AOL.com portal. Prior to AOL, he worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company in its media and telecom practice.
The closing of the joint venture is subject to customary closing conditions. This joint venture does not involve the broadband or cable video businesses of either Comcast or Charter which will remain independent.