By David Owen
June 19 – BT Group has surprised investors by announcing that Ian Livingston is to quit as chief executive, as the traditional telephone company is gearing up to take on BSkyB in the market for live coverage of Barclays Premier League matches.
Livingston will leave in September to take up a post as trade and investment minister in the UK Government.
He will be succeeded by Gavin Patterson, who has been chief executive of BT Retail since 2008.
The news dragged on BT shares, which closed the day 1.75% lower, compared with a 0.4% decline for the benchmark FTSE 100 index.
The company has added more than 50% to its market value in the last 12 months, in spite of tough economic times which are subjecting the budgets of many of its household customers to considerable strain.
It is in the process of embarking on a particularly exciting diversification after agreeing to pay £246 million a year for the live domestic broadcasting rights to 38 Premier League games a year for the next three seasons.
The move helped to generate an eye-popping near 70% advance in the overall value of these rights to more than £1 billion a season.
BT announced this month that it would kick off live football coverage on its new sports channel, BT Sport, with an exclusive showing of Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard’s testimonial match between Liverpool and Olympiacos of Greece on August 3.
BT Sport will also show live FA Cup, Europa League and Scottish Premier League matches, as well as top-tier live football from Germany, Italy, France, Brazil, Australia and the USA.
It also has broadcast rights to the new FA Women’s Super League.
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