Social streamer Scener lands Hulu vet Baron as new CEO

Scener, a social viewing platform for streaming services, has hired David Baron, who was with Hulu since its 2007 launch, as its new CEO.

Baron will be tasked with leading Scener into its next growth phase and “its broader vision in becoming the premier platform consolidating social streaming experiences for creators and fans.”

During his 14-year stint at Hulu, Baron managed the content strategy and helped launch Hulu + Live TV. He has also held roles at Fox Digital Media, Paramount Digital Entertainment and Microsoft.

“Scener has solved the puzzle of the social viewing experience for streaming services and is uniquely positioned for even more growth ahead,” said Baron in a statement. “The streaming industry is also at a dramatic inflection point. Consumers are now demanding both simplicity and social connection in their viewing experiences. 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 – this is the future of social viewing and content discovery, and it is an incredibly exciting time to join the team.”

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Scener is also adding some star power to its team of investors and advisors including J.J. Abrams, Tinder founder Sean Rad and and Marc Geiger, co-founder of Lollapalooza and former head of global music for WME.

Baron will be joined by Richard Wolpert, a veteran digital media and entertainment investor and consultant, who has joined Scener as executive chairman. Daniel Strickland, Scener’s founder and original CEO and CTO, will continue in his role as CTO.

Scener launched in 2018 and its platform allows users to aggregate content providers together into a single interface while protecting copyright. The company’s free Google Chrome extension supports more than 10 streaming services including Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video, HBO Max and YouTube.

The company said that throughout 2021, millions of unique Scener users participated in more than a billion minutes of social viewing across more than 7 million individual events on the platform.