BT poaches Sky boss as new head of TV and sport

Telecoms group BT has poached a top TV executive from arch-rival Sky to head up its own TV and sport service.Delia Bushell (41), who is Chief Commercial Officer of Sky Italia, is to join BT in July as its new Managing Director of BT TV and Sport, replacing Marc Watson.Bushell has spent the past 14 years at BSkyB and Sky Italia in several roles, including Director of Broadband and Telephony at BSkyB from 2006 to 2011 and Managing Director of Sky Ireland.Earlier in her career, Bushell spent three years as Director of Commercial Affairs for Sky Networks, determining strategy and launch plans for Sky's Freeview channels as well as directing commercial activity around Sky One.BT said Bushell would set long-term strategy for TV and sport to help drive BT's broadband business.She will oversee development of the BT TV platform and the BT Sport channels as well as their financial performance. She will also look after the development and acquisition of programming at BT TV including premium rights.BT has emerged as a major rival to Sky in the UK after launching its new BT Sport TV channels last year and snapping up the rights to 38 Premier League football matches as well as Champions League and Europa League soccer from the start of the 2015/16 season.The group will be hoping Bushell can boost its TV subscriber base of more than 950,000, which lags well behind that of Sky with about 10m.Bushell said: "BT is shaking up the UK TV market and I am thrilled to be joining at such an exciting time. Sport may have grabbed the headlines recently but the opportunity is far broader."Shares in BT fell 1.4p or 0.4% to 380p at 10:15 in London. BSkyB shares rose 1.5p or 0.2% to 902.5p at 10:21 in London.PW