Sandy Hunter – who spent 12 years with Apple TV Canada, five of them as head of the operation – is setting up his own production shingle after stepping down from his post at Apple last month.

The veteran executive has launched Cazador (which translates to “hunter” in Spanish) with a view to leveraging his experience atop Apple TV’s Canadian business to produce content across film, TV and digital projects, as well as taking on consulting work.

Hunter, who is also an alumnus of Alliance Atlantis, where he served as manager of digital specialty content from 2006 to 2009, joined Apple TV Canada in 2009, gaining a front-row seat to more than a decade of vast digital disruption.

The time was right for Hunter to move onto a new challenge, he tells Playback Daily.

“Twelve years is a long time. There’s no bad blood or anything, I just wanted to do my own thing,” he says.

While his early tenure was focused primarily on transactional and rental, the acceleration of the shift to streaming saw Apple TV Canada’s remit expand with the launch of Apple TV+ in November 2019. In addition to sinking his teeth into running an SVOD service, Hunter also had oversight of Apple’s TV subscription-based channels business in Canada.

Toward the end of his tenure, Hunter says he worked hard to get Canadian-focused content onto the service, eventually finding success as Apple TV+ acquired a filmed version of the Broadway musical, Come From Away, which is produced and financed by eOne. A release date for the project has not yet been set. “The fact that [deal] was able to happen was good, and at that point I said ‘I’m ready’ [to move on],” he said.

Hunter’s departure comes at an interesting time in the Canadian streaming landscape, and means that a trio of high-profile streaming gigs are now vacant at Apple, Disney and Netflix.

At Apple, a recruitment process is underway to find Hunter’s successor, while Disney posted a listing for the role of VP, direct to consumer, Canada last month. The mandate for the role, which is a new position for Disney in Canada, is to oversee Disney’s direct-to-consumer subscription streaming business in Canada. Among the responsibilities listed is to “develop and implement a strategic operating plan that supports the organization’s vision and goals and long-term direct to consumer strategy for Canada, in partnership with and based on overall direction/input from the President of Disney+.”

The recruitment efforts at Apple and Disney comes as Amazon and Netflix also make Canada-specific hiring moves. In May, Playback reported exclusively that Amazon had hired Brent Haynes as its first Canadian exec.

Meanwhile, Netflix revealed earlier in the year that it will hire a Canadian content executive, who will be based at the company’s soon-to-launch Toronto office. Netflix posted the job listing yesterday, coinciding with co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos’ virtual appearance at the Banff World Media Festival. 

“I think there will be opportunistic moments where, yes, if you have solid content that can travel, there are going to be film and TV opportunities in a much bigger way,” says Hunter of the increased interest streaming services are taking in the Canadian marketplace. 

In the shorter term, what’s next for Hunter is a consulting gig for Telefilm. In the role, Hunter, under his Cazador banner, will be advising Telefilm on its digital platform partnerships and audience engagement initiatives, helping to find paths to increase the footprint of Canadian film both domestically and internationally.

On the project front, Hunter already has several things in the works. He’s working with author and TV host Ziya Tong on an adaptation of her pop science book The Reality Bubble (2018), which counts Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way among its partners. Hunter is quick to clarify that the project is “100% her IP – I’m essentially just producing and assisting her.”

The former Apple exec has a couple of other irons in the fire, collaborating with actor-turned-director Clem McIntosh on developing some doc and feature projects.

“I’m a movie guy first, and I do still feel there’s a place for features. I don’t think that everything needs to be a series, because that often results in a feature film idea being spread too thinly across six episodes. So, that’s where my head is at right now.”

In terms of growing his Cazador shingle, Hunter says he’s in “full start-up” mode right now, but has a three-to-five-year plan to build a “robust leadership team.”

“It’s about getting some good work done and making a name for myself beyond Apple, and leveraging all my experience, contacts and what I’ve seen. What I can offer is that I’ve always had a good eye and I know what works, and after 12 years of grinding for Apple I can spot what works on the content side. If I can blend that effectively with my digital strategy and business management work, then I think I’ll be in a pretty good spot. That’s the hope,” he said.