Darren Nielson

Darren Nielson is Executive Vice President of International Networks for STARZ.

Based in the company’s Santa Monica office and reporting directly to the company’s President and CEO, Jeffrey Hirsch, Nielson oversees the international division’s growth for its newly rebranded international service LIONSGATE+ including P&L responsibility and all aspects of programming, distribution, marketing and publicity in the UK, Latin America, Brazil, Canada and Australia including oversight of LIONSGATE+ international original series.

In his previous role at STARZ, Nielson led the distribution and business development for the STARZ-branded digital and linear services and channels to develop expansion strategies, identify and evaluate partner opportunities, and source and negotiate distribution agreements with in-territory partners.

Since joining the company in 2018, Nielson has launched the STARZPLAY SVOD service across Canada, Latin America and Europe, structuring deals and managing partnerships with global OTT platforms, including Amazon and Apple along with leading local/regional Pay TV providers and telcos, such as Sky, Telefonica, Virgin, Claro, Viaplay and Vodafone and the top consumer electronic devices such as LG TV, Fire TV, Roku and more.

Prior to joining STARZ, Nielson served as director of content acquisition at Netflix, helping grow the service from a domestic DVD business into a global leader in streaming video. Nielson was instrumental in launching and building Netflix across Europe and Asia and managed global licensing relationships with major studios and local partners across both film and TV series. Prior to Netflix, Nielson held business development positions at Sony Pictures Television and Ascent Media.

Nielson serves on the Board of Directors for STARZPLAY Arabia in addition to his role as a Lecturer of Streaming Analytics at the Department of Management, UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Nielson holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Oregon and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.