Italian pay-television operator Sky Italia has completed a major overhaul of the management of its Sky Sports Channels and Advertising division, TV Sports Markets understands.
The division will be split into three departments – editorial, rights and programming, and production. Matteo Mammì, the current head of sports-rights acquisitions will now also take control of scheduling and programming matters. Marco Pistoni, who was previously responsible for sports channel programming, will move into an advisory role to the division’s executive vice-president Jacques Raynaud.
The changes are said to be designed to provide greater control of costs and quicker decision making. Sky has been cutting costs and has recently passed up the opportunity to renew rights deals for the English Premier League, the Spanish Liga and the German Bundesliga. However, it is not thought that the shake-up will lead to any redundancies.
Separate editorial departments for live sports content and sports news have been brought together into one department under Massimo Corcione. Production and operations will be run by Riccardo Botta.
Fabio Guadagnini moves from editorial to head up a newly-created motorsports department, while former head of sport Giovanni Bruno, along with Vincenzo Flores, will be responsible for the broadcaster’s preparations for the 2013 Confederations Cup, the winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 and the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil.