Former Drone Racing League President Rachel Jacobson Named ReachTV CEO

Rachel Jacobson took over as chief executive of ReachTV on April 28, as Stagwell elevated a veteran sports executive to lead a free ad-supported streaming network built around airports, hotels and the travelers moving through them. ReachTV said Jacobson will guide its next phase of growth, with a focus on scaling advertising inventory and content partnerships, while founder Lynnwood Bibbens shifts into the newly created role of Founder/Executive Chair.

The hire carries real weight for drone racing followers because Jacobson has already helped turn a niche, sponsor-friendly property into a larger media business. She spent more than 20 years at the NBA, where she helped expand the league’s global fanbase and supported the launch of the WNBA. She later served as president of the Drone Racing League, where league materials credit her with building commercial infrastructure and helping scale the audience to 100 million fans. That résumé fits a company trying to sell not just screens, but packaged attention.

ReachTV’s business is all about that attention. The network says it reaches more than 50 million viewers per month and delivers live sports, live business and original content in travel environments. Recent company materials describe a footprint of about 500,000 hotel rooms and more than 2,500 airport screens across North America. Other ReachTV materials put the network in 750 venues, serving 2,400 airport gates and 90 U.S. airports. For advertisers, that reach matters because it catches people in a captive setting, before takeoff, between connections and inside hotels where viewing habits are less fragmented than at home.

Jacobson’s move also points to where travel media is heading. Recent partnerships with Acxiom and The Weather Company show ReachTV leaning into data-driven, localized advertising built for travelers across the full journey. Acxiom has framed the opportunity around more than 50 million monthly travelers in 90 U.S. airports and $15 trillion in annual U.S. consumer spending, while The Weather Company has described ReachTV as a streaming network with mass monthly reach and a wide North American footprint.

For nontraditional sports, the deeper lesson is clear. The same playbook that helped drone racing look more like a real media asset than a curiosity now sits inside a network whose entire business depends on turning niche content into advertiser-friendly distribution. Bibbens’ move to executive chair preserves continuity, but the day-to-day job now belongs to an executive who has spent her career packaging emerging sports for mainstream money.