BT Vision Appoints Head Of Sport
BT has announced the appointment of Steve Norris as head of BT Vision Sport, with effect from April 1.
Norris was previously vice-president of operations and production at TAJ Television, a Dubai based sports TV channels network. He will report to Marc Watson, BT Vision’s commercial director
He was joint founder of TAJ Television in 2000, when it was known as Ten Sports. At TAJ he was responsible for all production and operations across seven sports channels.
Prior to this he held senior roles at ISL Worldwide, the sports-marketing business, and worked as a producer at Sky Sports.
Norris said: “This is a very exciting opportunity to be involved with a major development in the UK broadcasting Industry. BT Vision will offer the sports enthusiast something truly unique with a top line up of live sport from around the world in conjunction with on-demand programming and services designed to cater for the needs of the modern viewer.
“Backed by BT’s global reputation for excellence, this new venture into broadband services has come at exactly the right the time to capture the imagination of a new generation of viewers.”
Marc Watson, commercial director at BT Vision, said: “Sport is a fundamental part of BT Vision and we are determined to get the best people in the business to ensure the best sports proposition on TV. I am delighted that Steve is joining BT Vision; he has great experience from some of the biggest names in the business, as well as from setting up and running sports TV channels. His addition greatly strengthens BT Vision’s sports team.”
BT Vision was launched at the start of December 2006 (see Long Time Coming – BT’s Vision).
BT Vision launch its new sports service this summer. Following the recently-announced deal with Setanta, BT Vision Sport customers will have access to the Setanta Sport channel and its 46 live Barclays Premiership games, 60 live games from the Scottish Premier League as well as other sport.
They will also have access to the 242 ‘near-live’ on-demand FA Premiership games secured by BT earlier in 2006. In all, three quarters of all FA Premiership games will be available in full to BT Vision Sport customers.
At the start of January, BT Vision hired Paul Ridsdale, formerly head of marketing for Sky Sports, as senior marketing manager, sports advertising and sponsorship (see BT Vision Hires Sky Sports Marketing Boss).
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