EBU announces the appointment of Glen Killane as Executive Director of Eurovision Sport

(PRESS RELEASE) GRAND-SACONNEX, Switzerland, 9-Apr-2020 — /EuropaWire/ — EBU announces the promotion of Glen Killane to the role of Executive Director of Eurovision Sport. He succeeds Stefan Kürten, who announced in December that he will leave the EBU in June this year.

Glen is stepping up from the position of Deputy Director of Eurovision Sport, a role he has held since August 2018.

As Deputy Director he led the Eurovision Sports acquisition team which, in recent months, has overseen a series of rights agreement extensions with valued Eurovision Sport partners, including:

• ASO (extension of an agreement covering the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana until 2025);
• FIFA (extension of an agreement for the rights to the FIFA Club World Cup);
• Austrian Ski Association (extension of media rights partnership until 2024);
• International Biathlon Union (extension of exclusive media rights partnership until 2026);
• UEFA (TV rights agreement covering multiple competitions, including the UEFA Women’s European Championships 2021, plus radio rights for UEFA Euro 2020);
• European Gymnastics (extension of long-running media rights partnership until 2024).

Before joining the EBU, Glen was Managing Director of Eir Sport and Eir TV, owned by Irish Telco Eir, where he led the launch of their OTT pay sports business and ran the company’s IPTV platform.

He was Managing Director of RTE Television from 2010 until 2016, during which time he was elected Chair of the EBU Television Committee.

Glen began his career as a sports journalist working in editorial positions for RTE and for ITV in London where he was editor of live football. He was Group Head of Sport for RTE from 2004 until 2010 and was elected as Vice Chair of the EBU Sports Committee.

Born in Dublin in Ireland, Glen, 48, was educated at Trinity College Dublin where he gained a degree in English Literature and he holds a Masters degree in Journalism from Dublin City University. Glen and his partner Fiona have four children.

Noel Curran, Director General of the EBU, said: “Glen has a proven track record in Sports broadcasting in the public and private sectors. He understands the digital requirements of Sports Federations in the modern age and remains totally committed to the values of our public service Members.

“I’m looking forward to working with him and all the team to ensure public service media continues to broadcast the best sporting events free-to-all.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Stefan Kürten for his enormous and successful contribution to the EBU and Eurovision Sport over so many years.”

Glen said: “It is a privilege to be appointed to this position by the EBU and our Members. It’s at times like this that we truly appreciate the value of public service media and I look forward to working with my colleagues and our Members as we recover from this pandemic.

“I’m also looking forward to working with our partner federations across Europe to overcome the present challenges facing us all and am excited for the day when we can bring great sporting action back to the screens and radio channels of public service broadcasters throughout the continent.”

Departing Director of Eurovision Sport Stefan Kürten added: “After 20 fantastic years, I’d like to wish Glen and all the team at Eurovision Sport all the best for the future and look forward to seeing their continued success.”

For more information, please contact:

Claire Rainford
Manager of Communications
Communications
+41 22 717 2321
rainford@ebu.ch

SOURCE: The European Broadcasting Union