The Norwegian branch of international media group Discovery has appointed Morten Johannessen as its new sports director following on from a stint serving as acting director of sport for the last year.
Johannessen will take over permanently from Eirik Koren, who had held the role since 2017. Koren has had health issues and Johannessen had taken on responsibilities during Koren’s treatment.
Koren will be moving to a new role at Discovery Norway, as editorial manager and commentator.
Tine Astvoll Jensen, chief executive officer at Discovery Norway, said: “Eirik has done a brilliant job in the role of sports director. He has been responsible for some of the biggest rights in Discovery’s portfolio, and contributed to the fact that today we have one of Norway’s most talented sports editors.
“I am therefore very happy that we get to take advantage of Eirik’s expertise also in the future, both in connection with the content work and the development of our sports products”.
Johannessen joined Discovery in August 2016 as executive producer for sports. He spent 17 years at Norwegian public-service broadcaster NRK, where he assumed the position of executive producer and director of NRK Sport.
Discovery holds several high profile rights in Norway, including the top-tier football league till 2022 and the Olympic Games till 2024 as part of its deal across 50 European territories in worth €1.3bn ($1.53bn).