Sky’s Group CEO Jeremy Darroch Steps Down After 13 Years

The Group CEO of Sky (Sky Broadband, Sky TV etc.), Jeremy Darroch, has announced that, after 13 long years’, he is to finally stepping down and will become Executive Chairman through 2021 to ensure a smooth transition. Meanwhile the current President of Consumer Services for new owner Comcast, Dana Strong, will become Sky’s new CEO.

Jeremy is one of the longest-serving leaders of a major British company, having been CEO of Sky since 2007, and Group CFO before that, since 2004. During that time he has seen a lot of change across the pay TV, broadband, mobile and phone market, not least of which was the £30bn acquisition by US cable giant Comcast in September 2018 (here).

However, as the UK and pan-European business completes its transition into the wider Comcast Corporation, Jeremy has finally decided that now is the right time to go. In his place will sit Comcast’s current President of Consumer Services, Dana Strong, who previously served as President and COO of Virgin Media UK and as Chief Transformation Officer of Liberty Global, CEO of UPC Ireland, and COO of AUSTAR in Australia.

Suffice to say that Dana has plenty of experience in the broadband and TV market, which is exactly what her new position requires. She will report to Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts.

Jeremy Darroch said:

“It has been a privilege to lead Sky for 13 years, and an experience that I have looked forward to every day, so the decision to leave has not been easy. But with the business firmly settled into the wider Comcast Corporation and a strong plan in place, now is the right time. I feel incredibly lucky to have been surrounded by colleagues who care as deeply as I do about this business and our customers and work tirelessly every day to make their lives better. I would like to thank all of my colleagues at Sky and also Brian and the team at Comcast who I have thoroughly enjoyed working with.

I have no doubt that Dana will take Sky into a new and exciting future. Her proven record for leading telecommunications and media businesses coupled with her experience in the US, UK and Europe will be great assets to Sky and I look forward to working with her as she takes the reins.”

Dana Strong said:

“There are few businesses that have the track record of Sky, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead the company. I’ve always admired Sky’s innovation, brand, and exceptional focus on the customer. I look forward to working with this incredible team to continue to grow the business and shape the next chapter for Sky.”

The changing of a CEO often brings with it a wider change of strategy and as such it will be interesting to see what direction Dana now takes Sky. In the UK we still fully expect Sky’s TV platform to become more broadband than Satellite based in the future, although there hasn’t been much movement on that front in a while.

At the same time, it will be interesting to see whether Sky Broadband remains beholden to Openreach’s network for their future or whether Dana will branch out to work more closely with rival networks. The company has often been linked to potential new wholesale agreements with Cityfibre and Virgin Media (via Liberty Networks). As the UK’s second largest ISP, albeit one without its own network, Sky has a fair bit of influence in the market.

On top of that Sky will need to remain mindful of the growing move toward convergence, which has already seen BT merge with EE and Virgin Media start the process of merging with O2.