NBCUniversal names international sports chief

NBCUniversal International has appointed Rhys Beer to the new role of vice-president, sports distribution and business development. 

Beer will be responsible for leading and implementing growth opportunities and revenue generation through the sales of NBCUniversal’s existing sports programming, developing a strategy to grow NBCU’s sports rights portfolio and grow its syndication business, and identifying strategic partnerships outside of North America. He will be based in London and report to Don McGregor, executive vice-president, International Television Distribution.

Beer will also identify channel development strategies, including carriage, licensed channels and joint ventures or branded content blocks with strategic partners, particularly for Golf Channel. NBCUniversal already has a partnership with Golf Network in Japan, as well as a Golf Channel branded block on Ten Golf, India’s 24-hour golf network.

Beer was previously commercial director at sports media agency Perform Group.