Sky Deutschland announces senior management changes

Unterföhring, 26 March 2015 - Sky Deutschland AG announces that Brian Sullivan is to step down as Chief Executive on 24 June 2015 in order to return to the United States. The Supervisory Board has appointed Carsten Schmidt, currently Sky Deutschland's Chief Officer Sports, Advertising Sales & Internet, to succeed Mr Sullivan. He takes on the new role of Deputy Chief Executive with immediate effect and will work alongside Mr Sullivan over the coming months before taking over as Chief Executive.

Carsten Schmidt has served on Sky Deutschland's management board since 2006, after initially joining the company in 1999. In his current position, he has played a key role in the company's strong growth and the development of its market-leading position in exclusive content, with responsibilities including sports programming and rights acquisition, online activities and advertising sales.

Jeremy Darroch, Chief Executive of Sky plc and Chairman of Sky Deutschland AG's Supervisory Board: "Brian Sullivan has made a huge contribution to Sky Deutschland over the last five years. He has built an excellent team who have delivered a step-change in growth and opened up the significant future opportunity for Sky in Germany and Austria. We wish him the very best as he returns to the U.S."

"We are delighted to appoint such an experienced and capable executive from within the existing leadership team. Carsten Schmidt has played a central role in the transformation of Sky in Germany, building a strong business in premium sport with a deserved reputation for outstanding quality and innovation. With the support of an excellent team, he will lead the next phase of Sky's growth as it continues to execute on a well-established and successful strategy."

Carsten Schmidt, Deputy Chief Executive of Sky Deutschland AG: "This is an exciting time for Sky in Germany and Austria. The business is performing very well, and with the support of the wider Sky group, we are now even better positioned to exploit the huge potential in our sector. I'm looking forward to working with the team to bring the Sky experience to many more customers in the future."

Brian Sullivan, Chief Executive of Sky Deutschland AG: "Sky Deutschland has come a long way over the last few years. The product we deliver today is amongst the best in the world, whether that be our outstanding content, amazing innovations or award winning customer service. And customers have responded in the millions. This could not have been accomplished without the incredible team here at Sky, of which Carsten has been an outstanding member. I cannot think of a better person to work with Jeremy and the whole team to bring the next chapter of the Sky story to life."


CV Carsten Schmidt

Carsten Schmidt (born 1963) is Chief Officer Sports, Advertising Sales & Internet of Sky Deutschland. He is responsible for the editorial work and production of sports programming (including the news channel Sky Sport News HD) and sports rights acquisition. He is also in charge of all of the company's online activities as well as the program management of Sky Austria and is acting as Managing Director of Sky's advertising sales subsidiary Sky Media Network.

Before his appointment to the management board of Sky in March 2006, Schmidt had led the sports department at the Munich-based entertainment company for several years. Prior to that, as Managing Director of WIGE Media, one of Europe's leading sports media providers, he was in charge of the Marketing and Television division for four years.

Schmidt is also a Director of the Sky Foundation and spokesperson for the advisory board of the Fachverband für Sponsoring und Sonderwerbeformen e.V. (FASPO; Professional Association for Sponsoring and Special Advertising Formats). He was awarded with the Deutsche Fernsehpreis in 2003 for the Bundesliga conference innovation and named "Sports Business Manager of the Year" by specialist magazine Horizont in 2012.



About Sky Deutschland:

Sky is the leading pay-TV provider in Germany and Austria with more than 4.1 million subscribers and annual revenues amounting to approximately 1.7 billion Euros. The program portfolio of Sky includes live sports, feature films, series, children's programs and documentaries. Sky has around 2,500 employees and is based in Unterföhring near Munich. The company is a part of Sky plc, Europe's leading entertainment group (Status: 31 Dec. 2014).


Contact for media:

Dr. Jörg E. Allgäuer

Vice President Corporate Communications

Tel.: +49 89/99 58-63 77

joerg.allgaeuer@sky.de

twitter.com/SkyDeutschland



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