Setanta Hires Aol’s Ryan As Marketing Chief

Tim Ryan, the director of brand marketing at AOL, has been poached to become the
first GB marketing director of sports broadcast network Setanta.

Ryan’s brief will be to exploit the increasing array of sports rights under
Setanta’s control including the FA Cup and England internationals which the
broadcaster controversially picked up last week in a joint deal with ITV.

Ryan, who is likely to be given a substantial marketing budget, has stated
that his initial objective will be to add 1m subscribers to Setanta’s customer
base.

Other rights that Setanta owns include the FA Premier League and an array of
golf coverage.

Setanta is looking to take to provide a head on challenge to rival Sky Sports
which has hitherto dominated the market.