The move comes four months after Disney put down a $1 billion stake in the streaming shop, which backed the OTT efforts of media companies including Disney’s ESPN unit and Time Warner’s HBO division, among other outlets.
Bowman will reportedly remain on the board of directors for BAMTech, but will return as president of the company from which BAMTech was recently spun off, Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM).
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Bloomberg was the first to report Bowman’s departure, but MLBAM has since confirmed it.
Speaking to its usual assortment of unnamed “sources,” the New York Post described a mixed reaction to Bowman by Disney. On one side, he is known as one of the most dynamic presences in sports media, leading the march of a tiny unit inside the larger apparatus of Major League Baseball to the forefront of streaming technology.
For example, when HBO was having trouble getting its direct-to-consumer platform engineered in 2015, they reportedly canned their in-house shop and had BAMTech handle the project. BAMTech was valued at $3.5 billion when Disney purchased its stake in August.
On the other hand, however, Bowman’s purportedly large personality is said to have factored into the departure, with Disney execs unsure as to how he’d fit in.