Jukin hires Comcast alum to lead brands

US viral video specialist Jukin Media has hired a former Comcast executive as its general manager of brands.

Craig Parks

Craig Parks is joining the firm to oversee programming and strategy for its owned-and-operated media brands People Are Awesome, FailArmy, The Pet Collective, JukinVideo and Poke My Heart.

Parks is a former head of programming for Comcast’s Watchable platform, and has also worked as senior VP of of live programming and specials at Participant Media and senior VP of digital media at US cablenet IFC.

He will now oversee the continued growth of Jukin’s brands, which have more than 160 million followers and nearly four billion video views combined across Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram.

The brands are distributed on more than 20 mobile, web and OTT video services in the US and abroad, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung’s TV Plus, XUMO, Pluto TV, Plex, Tik Tok, Watchback, Sky Q, TVPlayer, iFlix and 7TV.

Parks, who will report to Jukin Media president and chief operating officer Lee Essner, said: “These are truly modern-day media brands, each with an ecosystem that spans all the major social platforms, connected TV, mobile apps and even traditional TV.

“Not only are they built for consumers who increasingly spend time across platforms for their entertainment, they’re ideal for advertisers to be able to reach consumers wherever they view video content.”

In December Jukin hired Jill Goldfarb, former VP of programming for the Discovery Channel and VP of programme planning and scheduling at Fox and ABC Family (now known as Freeform), as VP of linear programming.