BSkyB director joins Setanta

July 11, 2005

The former managing director of BSkyB, Trevor East, has been appointed director of sport at Irish sports TV company Setanta. Prior to working for BSkyB Mr. East, 54, was head of sport at ITV for 22 years. The new role will involve gaining the rights to different sports events, and possibly even the premiership.

Setanta initially started out by broadcasting GAA games to Irish people living abroad particularly in the US. Today, backed by an investment by AIG, it is pursuing an ambitious plan to grow its business - it currently broadcasts the Scottish Premier League and earlier this week it bought control of North American Sports Network. North American Sports Network broadcasts baseball, NFL football, basketball and Nascar motor racing outside the US. Also in the planning stages is a European sports station for the US market.