BT Poaches Former BSkyB Executive To Run TV, Sports

By Simon Zekaria 

LONDON--BT Group PLC has poached a former British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC executive to head its fast-growing television and sports businesses, as the rivals battle for subscribers and prepare to square off for a crucial soccer-rights auction.

Delia Bushell will be BT's managing director of TV and Sport from July, replacing Marc Watson who left last month, the former telecom monopoly said Monday.

Ms. Bushell, 41 years old, is currently chief commercial officer of Italian digital satellite television platform Sky Italia, overseeing marketing and sales for its EUR2.5 billion ($3.4 billion) residential business. Sky Italia is owned by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox Inc. BSkyB is 39%-owned by 21st Century Fox, which until June 2013 was part of News Corp., the owner of The Wall Street Journal.

Previously, Ms. Bushell was BSkyB's director of broadband and telephony for five years, from 2006.

Telecoms giant BT is locked in a fight with BSkyB--the satellite broadcaster that leads Britain's pay-TV sector--for telephony, broadband and television users across that so-called "triple-play" market.

To boost its core telephony business, BT has spent billions of dollars over the last couple of years acquiring premium sports rights to fill its sports channels, launched eight months ago. BT Sport is offered free to existing BT broadband customers.

In 2012, BT secured three-year rights to 38 live English Premier League soccer matches each season through 2016, challenging BSkyB's long dominance over U.K. soccer. It has also beaten off competition for European soccer rights.

The next auction of Premier League rights is expected at the end of this year or next.

BT is "shaking up" the U.K. TV market, said Ms. Bushell on Monday, who will report to John Petter, chief executive of BT's consumer division. "I am thrilled to be joining at such an exciting time."

Ms. Bushell wasn't available for further comment.

BT TV has a customer base of more than 950,000 homes, BT says, while BT Sport is found in more than four million homes, including via Sky's satellite platform and Virgin Media Inc.'s cable network. BSkyB has more than 10 million pay-TV customers.

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