Spotify Veteran Dan Sormaz Joins Fubo to Lead Product Design

FuboTV announces that it has named Dan Sormaz to lead its product design operations as senior vice president, design. Sormaz joins Fubo’s New York City headquarters this week reporting directly to Mike Berkley, chief product officer, Fubo.

Sormaz brings to Fubo 20 years of experience designing user experiences for some of the world’s top consumer products, including Spotify, Sorare and Boxee (acquired by Samsung). At Fubo, Sormaz’s mandate is to lead the design organization, which is responsible for how Fubo’s customers interact with and experience its live TV streaming products.

Sormaz’s appointment comes at a pivotal moment for Fubo as it continues to build its vision of the most personalized TV experience for the consumer. The company is harnessing its proprietary AI and computer vision technology, acquired through its 2021 purchase of Edisn.ai, to make the product experience more interactive and useful. Fubo’s internally-built tech stack has enabled the company to continuously push the boundaries of live TV streaming. It was the first virtual MVPD to launch 4K streaming (2018) and MultiView (2020), and did so years ahead of its peers. These moves have contributed to Fubo’s increasing engagement with users who now spend an average of over 100 hours per month on the platform.

“Dan is not only the best design leader in media that I know, he is also a great product strategist,” says Berkely. “I partnered closely with Dan at Spotify for several years and am so thrilled for him to lead our design team at Fubo. With the proliferation of so many streaming apps, the TV industry has become very fragmented and is not aligned with consumer needs. We believe Fubo’s aggregated content model solves this issue and, with Dan guiding us on delivering an intuitive and useful user experience, we are confident that we can evolve how consumers watch television.”

“Fubo really hits the sweet spot for me – I am so passionate about streaming, having spent more than a decade in that world across music, podcasts and video/TV, and I am a huge sports fan,” says Sormaz. “User experiences for streaming services reflect the ever-changing world around them. With an evolving content landscape, shifting consumer behaviors and emerging new technology, I believe we’re entering an exciting new era for TV streaming UX. I am looking forward to reuniting with Mike and working with the fantastic Fubo team to build what’s next for TV.”

Prior to joining Fubo, Sormaz led design at Sorare, a web 3 startup in the digital collectibles / fantasy sports space that partners with the NBA, MLB, Premier League and other top sports leagues. He joined Spotify in 2012 and ultimately rose to the VP of design position. During his 10 years at Spotify, Sormaz built and led multiple design organizations and launched consumer products. Most recently, he led design for Spotify’s recommendations org, responsible for innovative new features such as its Home Feed, AI DJ and personalized playlists. Sormaz has also led design at TV startup Boxee (2011-2012) and major media companies News Corp (2010-2011) and AOL (2006-2010).