Candle Media’s Exile Content hires Bese & Mitú alum as chief digital officer

Daniel Batista

Candle Media-backed Exile Content Studio has hired the former president & COO at Zoe Saldaña’s publishing & production firm Bese as its chief digital officer.

Daniel Batista will oversee the podcast and digital content studio arms of Exile, which was acquired by Kevin Mayer and Tom Stagg’s Candle Media in May.

Batista was most recently a consultant to actor and comedian Eugenio Derbez and producer Ben Odell’s 3Pas Studios, having co-founded Saldaña’s Bese.

Before that, the exec worked at Latino social media start-up Mitú and he has also held roles with Universal, Warner Bros and Paramount.

Exile expansion

The appointment comes two months since Candle Media bought into the prodco, which was founded in 2019 by former Univision and Televisa CCO Isaac Lee.

It produces feature film, scripted and unscripted television, music and audio content for global Spanish speaking audiences, with recent projects including Netflix series Todo Va A Estar Bien, HBO docuseries Un Sueño Real and true-crime podcast Sacred Scandal, in partnership with iHeartMedia.

Upcoming productions meanwhile include Gente Sana, a six-part docuseries hosted by J Balvin for Peacock, scripted series The Illusionist Club in partnership with Moxie 88, and feature film The Coup in partnership with AP productions.

Exile also recently announced a development deal with Academy Award-winner Benicio del Toro, acquired Dixo, a Spanish-language podcast network and production company, and launched two new divisions – Exile Music, backed by world-renowned Colombian artist Fonseca, and Exile Kids, focused on Spanish-language animation and family entertainment.

Lee said Batista would “play a critical role in realising our vision to create a content ecosystem built around compelling IP.”

Exile Content Studio president Alejandro Uribe added: “Daniel is a well-respected, seasoned veteran, with extensive experience across media and entertainment including TV, film and digital. He will be instrumental in scaling our podcast business and leading the digital content team to bring value across all of Exile.”