Amazon has hired Matt Schwimmer to lead creator business development within the Creator Services team. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he will run strategy, scouting and the closing of partnerships with creators. It is a commercial role whose task is to turn show audiences into revenue.
Schwimmer started in June 2026 and reports to Matt Sandler, general manager of Creator Services. His portfolio includes shows such as New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, Armchair Expert, Mind the Game with LeBron James and Steve Nash, and The Oprah Podcast, which Amazon acquired in April 2026.
Sandler said of that deal that “Creators are reshaping entertainment, and Oprah continues to pave the way”.
Schwimmer comes from sports podcasts
Before this, Schwimmer worked at Better Collective, where he was chief executive of the Playmaker platform and senior vice president for global talent-led media. That division included shows such as The Big Podcast with Shaquille O'Neal, Roommates with Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, and Club Shay Shay. These are creators whose audiences are built around an individual’s name.
Creator Services works with on-camera celebrities, and its task is to expand the portfolio and connect individual shows with the rest of Amazon. Schwimmer’s track record with shows built around individuals fits that brief.
Creator Services emerged from the Wondery restructuring
The team is the result of a reorganisation that Amazon announced on 4 August 2025. It cut around 110 jobs at the Wondery studio, and its head, Jen Sargent, left. Amazon acquired Wondery in 2021.
The reorganisation split the catalogue by format. Narrative shows such as Dr. Death, American Scandal and Business Wars moved under Audible. Shows built around specific faces went to the newly created Creator Services team. Schwimmer’s hire fills the commercial role in that second branch.
The strategy is to link content with sales
Sandler described the team’s direction in April 2026, saying the goal is to “infuse both the content and the commerce together”. A shopping environment is thus being built around the show. For the Kelce brothers’ podcast, Amazon has created a Kelce Clubhouse section, where fans buy fan merchandise, watch documentaries and order recommended products linked to the content.
The audio version of the shows stays on Audible, while video and the commercial layer belong to Creator Services. Schwimmer’s job is to close brand deals that bring these layers together.
The advertising layer runs on Prime Video
The second piece of the puzzle is advertising inventory. At the Upfront on 11 May 2026, Amazon presented Dynamic TV Creative, an interactive video format on Prime Video that personalises ads according to the viewer’s shopping behaviour. At the same event Amazon announced the distribution of The Oprah Podcast on Prime Video and Fire TV, with two episodes a week.
Sarah Iooss, director of global agency and global Twitch ads, said that “with new dynamic creative in our Interactive Video Ads, we can share the right message to the right viewer, based on actual shopping behavior”.
The creator brings the audience, Prime Video provides the advertising space and Amazon provides the shopping point right at the content. One company holds all three layers.
European brands buy the whole chain from one supplier
Amazon has under one ownership a podcast, video distribution, an advertising system and shopping infrastructure. A brand that wants to reach a show’s audience gets content, advertising and a point of sale from one company. Platforms that only sell advertising alongside content do not offer this whole chain.
Schwimmer’s role links these layers into a single deal with a brand. In the European market, inventory on top creators is fragmented between YouTube, Spotify and agencies, so a single-supplier model runs against established buying practice.
Comments