Premium TV appoints development unit boss
Premium TV, Europe’s largest digital sports publisher, has promoted former advertising and sponsorship director Bryan Winning to head a newly established business development unit.
Winning has been given the brief of exploiting assets belonging to football clubs, broadcasters, brands and content owners across a range of platforms, including mobile services and digital television.
Premium TV commercial director Oliver Slipper says the unit has been set up to encourage content owners and rights-holders which might previously have been put off exploiting new media opportunities, owing to the costs involved and the fear of cannibalising revenue from existing products.
The unit’s first task will be to create an online version of monthly football magazine FourFourTwo, which is owned by Haymarket Publishing.
Premium TV will design, build and manage the editorial content of the FourFourTwo website. News will be written by Premium TV’s in-house editorial team, with features adapted from the monthly magazine. Premium TV will receive a share of the advertising, sponsorship, e-commerce, subscriptions, betting and mobile revenues generated by the site.
Premium TV has 1.5 million registered users and more than 135,000 paying subscribers for its broadband, narrowband and mobile services. It holds the digital rights to 82 UK football clubs and provides digital management services to media companies including MTV, Canal+, Eurosport, Music Choice and NTL.
Premium TV is owned by the former NTL Europe, which changed its name to PTV Inc earlier this year. In June, it successfully renegotiated its deal with the Football League for online rights relating to 76 leading football clubs, releasing it from a loss-making contract (MW June 24).