Eurosport UK managing director David Kerr will leave the sports broadcaster in the coming months, TV Sports Markets understands.
Kerr has been managing director of Eurosport UK, the UK arm of the international sports broadcaster, since October 2010. He joined Eurosport from UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 in July 2005, where he had been head of sport.
“I’ve been here for 10 years plus, I’ve had a great time and had lots of success, most recently with the Australian Open,” Kerr told TV Sports Markets today. The Eurosport 1 channel’s exclusive coverage of this year’s Australian Open tennis final had an average audience of 868,000, and peaked at 1.1m. During the latter stages of the match Eurosport 1 was the UK’s most-watched channel.
Kerr added: “I felt it was time to move on, I want to pursue some new ideas and projects.” Kerr is expected to leave Eurosport in July before taking a break for a few months. He will then return to the sports broadcasting industry in a consultancy capacity. Kerr will advise Eurosport, and its owners – US media group Discovery Communications – on the selection of a replacement.
“One of the highlights for me was that we had one British Eurosport channel when I started, the other was an international channel from Paris,” Kerr said. “We created a British Eurosport 2 – that was a big success and we have quadrupled the ratings over my time. The acquisition of British Superbikes has driven that, it really launched the channel.”