Fred Harner – Media Executive & Strategic Advisor
Fred Harner is a recognized digital leader with expertise in content creation and multiplatform strategic thinking. With a career spanning two decades at major media companies like ESPN, Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network, SportsNet New York, NBCU and the XFL, Fred has a proven track record of building innovative content strategies that achieve bottom line results.
“I give leagues, teams, media companies and platforms the insights they need to develop and execute winning content strategies.”
Fred was most recently the Senior Vice President of Content & Media at the XFL where he led the XFL’s content strategy and all digital and social media initiatives for the league and its eight teams. Under his leadership the XFL quickly scaled its audience to 4M social followers, 9M monthly unique website visitors and generated over 40M video views per month during the COVID19-shortened season. Fred also worked closely with the XFL’s broadcast partners – ESPN and FOX Sports – to help drive tune-in, fan engagement and the development of new programming initiatives.
From 2007 to June 2019, Fred was the Vice President & General Manager of Digital Media at SNY. As head of SNY’s digital business he oversaw content strategy (O&O and social media), business development, sales/sponsorship, live streaming, VOD, partner relations, analytics and products. Fred managed business synergies with top companies like, Facebook, Twitter, Google, NBCU sports properties, MLB Advanced Media, and Yahoo Sports.
While at SNY, Fred led the growth of SNY.tv traffic and revenue to all-time highs, introduced live-streaming of MLB Mets games and UConn Basketball, created highly engaging cross-platform programs, while overseeing full P&L for and managing a 25-person cross functional team.
Prior to SNY, Fred spent six years as the Digital Media Director at the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network (YES Network), helping to launch the most-watched RSN in the U.S. and quickly establishing the network’s web site as a go-to resource for Yankees fans around the globe.
Fred also spent five years as a senior editor for ABC Sports Online and ESPN.com, managing ABC Sports’ Monday Night Football, Super Bowl, college football and Indy 500 online coverage.
Fred has won multiple N.Y. Sports Emmy and Telly Awards and was selected to participate in Comcast/NBCU’s exclusive INVEST executive leadership development program. A 2020 Sports Business Best In Social nominee, Fred has also appeared on several panels, including the SXSW Technology Conference and BlogWorld & New Media Expo.
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