BT TV Waves Goodbye to Chief Executive Officer Marc Watson

Marc Watson, CEO of the BT TV Group and one of the architects behind the operator’s storm into the United Kingdom’s broadband-based Pay TV market, has announced his decision to leave the telecoms giant in pursuit of a “fresh challenge“. The announcement comes before the next round of a battle with BSkyB over ownership of TV sporting rights.

Watson has been at the helm of BT’s ambitions in the Pay TV market for several years and helped introduce the new BTSport service alongside related broadband and Pay TV bundles using the YouView (IPTV) platform.

At the last count BT TV had managed to reach 950,000 homes, which is well short of Sky’s 10 million, although this overlooks the 2.5 million free BTSport users (many got it as part of their broadband bundle).

Marc Watson said:

“I have had a fantastic time at BT, enjoying many years in an amazingly fast and dynamic marketplace. I’m sad to leave but now is the right time for me to take on a fresh challenge.

I am proud of what we have achieved in BT TV. We have built a top quality TV service from scratch and BT Sport is thriving thanks to the great live sport we’ve secured. I am sure the business will go from strength to strength and I wish everyone at BT well.”

John Petter, BT’s Consumer CEO, said:

“I would like to thank Marc for helping us bring BT TV to a large audience and for helping us to launch BT Sport with the very best live sporting action including top tier football, rugby, tennis and MotoGP rights. He leaves with our best wishes for the future.”

Meanwhile BT said that they were looking for a new Managing Director of BT TV and BTSport (note: not another CEO), which is a process that the operator hinted was already “well underway with BT considering external as well as internal candidates“. An appointment is expected to be made in due course and the successful candidate will report to John Petter (above).