Jeff Zucker, former CNN president, announces his next move in $1bn sports venture

Former CNN president Jeff Zucker announced that he’ll be partnering with a sports investment fund that will launch with $1bn in committed capital.

Mr Zucker, who left WarnerMedia last February ahead of its merger with Discovery, will join RedBird Capital Partners and International Media Investments to launch RedBird IMI. The joint venture markets itself as being committed to “acquiring and investing in large scale media, entertainment and sports content properties on a global basis”, the Wall Street Journal first reported.

“I’ve spent 35 years running media businesses at the intersection of news, sports and entertainment, creating new brands and resurrecting old ones. That experience has given me unparalleled perspective for this unique time in media, and the combination of the RedBird and IMI capital and strategic discipline, combined with my operational experience, will give this joint venture a unique advantage in the current media landscape,” said the 57-year-old media executive in a prepared statement announcing the news on Tuesday.

Mr Zucker was hailed during his tenure as head of CNN for driving the cable news network to ratings success in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, as he prioritised more programs with a greater share of opinionated hosts and documentary filmmaking.

He joined CNN in 2013, departing from NBCUniversal after 25 years. Mr Zucker had been at NBC since his early days in media and cut his teeth as a top producer on Today while Matt Lauer and Katie Couric served as anchors. While at NBC, he served as CEO between 2007 and 2011. During that time, he also co-founded the online streaming service Hulu.

The 57-year-old media whiz stepped down from his role at the helm of CNN back in February, after an internal probe into the firing of ex-host Chris Cuomo uncovered an undisclosed relationship between Mr Zucker and one of the network’s other executives, Allison Gollust.

While Ms Gollust, CNN’s chief marketing officer, announced at the time of the revelation that she would remain in her role, Mr Zucker made a statement shortly after the news broke that he would be departing the network after nine years.

“I certainly wish my tenure here had ended differently. But it was an amazing run. And I loved every minute,” he said in a February statement.

Since then, there’s been much speculation as to what the live news programming executive’s next moves would be. Reports began to circulate back in November that he was eyeing a partnership with RedBird Capital.

Both Gerry Cardinale, the founder of RedBird, and Nart Bouran, CEO of IMI, commended Mr Zucker for the depth of experience and expertise he will bring to his new role in the new venture.

“With Jeff as our CEO, this platform will integrate substantial operating expertise with sophisticated financial and investing acumen to deploy transformational capital on a scaled basis,” said Mr Cardinale in a prepared statement, acknowledging the more than three decades of experience that the former CNN chief will bring to the table.

Both RedBird and IMI are well-established names in the sports and media programming sphere, with the former owning part of Fenway Sports Group, who itself owns the Boston Red Sox, and SpringHill Co, which is owned by NBA star LeBron James.