René Santaella serves as Chief Digital & Streaming Officer for Estrella Media. Santaella was previously EVP, Digital & Streaming Media, and is credited with launching the company’s successful streaming and AVOD platforms and leading the digital transformation of Estrella Media’s content and distribution strategy, operations, and new revenue initiatives. Under his guidance, Estrella Media has quickly become a leader in multi-platform, Spanish-language, ad-supported content distribution, with a digital content reach of more than 4 billion minutes per month, viewed across its multiplatform media portfolio, including its FAST, AVOD, and streaming audio platforms. 

Among the platforms that have launched under his guidance are: the EstrellaTV APP available on Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung, Vizio, iOS and Android mobile; four Estrella Media curated live streaming T.V. networks - EstrellaTV, Estrella News, CineEstrellaTV and Estrella Games – seen across The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, Vizio WatchFree, Xumo, Xfinity Flex, PlutoTV, Amazon News, Tubi and FuboTV. Estrella Media is a top 20 leader in streaming audio with stations like Que Buena Los Angeles, QB Underground, La Raza and El Norte – all available on TuneIn, the EstrellaTV APP and EstrellaTV.com.    

Prior to joining Estrella Media, Santaella was the Senior Vice President, Head of Ad Sales & Business Operations, at Sony Pictures Television Digital Networks, and built Crackle into a leading free ad-supported streaming network with the Emmy nominated hit, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.  He also led the creation of a premium video network for advertisers targeting a large audience of “connected gamers” that included PlayStation, Funimation, Pluto TV and Crackle. Before Sony, he was Director, Ad Sales Marketing for Disney Interactive, leading digital and cross-platform advertising and integrated marketing solutions across the company with corporate alliance partners. 

Santaella is based in the company’s Burbank headquarters and reports to Peter Markham, CEO of Estrella Media. He was named to The Wrap’s 2023 “Latino Power List,” and the Estrella News FAST channel received the prestigious “Achievement in FAST Programming” award from NextTV under his guidance.  He holds a Master of Business Administration from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA and a Bachelor’s degree from UCLA. He was also a member of the Puerto Rican National Swim Team and UCLA Men’s Swim Team.