The news was revealed by HotPod, a podcasting newsletter owned by American technology blog The Verge, and followed the news reported by Bloomberg in early October that YouTube was seeking to hire a podcast executive to manage and grow YouTube’s podcasting business and cash in on the ever-expanding podcast market.
A YouTube spokesperson told HotPod that Chuk will now “manage the large volume of existing podcasts and relationships across the YouTube platform.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Chuk started working for YouTube in 2012 as head of North American entertainment partnerships before becoming Director of Digital Media & Enterprise Partnerships in 2018. Previously he had worked at Bain & Company and MTV Networks.
YouTube has proved a popular streaming forum for video podcasters due to its lengthy upload limits, but so far only Premium users can stream audio-only podcasts.
There has been speculation that YouTube’s parent company Google may merge its podcast-streaming service, Google Podcasts, with YouTube’s Music app and that Chuk will be tasked with facilitating this merger.
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