Telecom Italia names Genish as CEO and approves Canal+ JV

Amos Genish

Telecom Italia (TIM) has confirmed the widely anticipated appointment of Amos Genish as its new CEO and its board has approved the creation of a joint venture with Canal+ to create a new premium video service and content creation unit for the Italian market.

According to TIM, the JV with Canal+ will focus on productions and co-productions, both Italian and international, and on the acquisition of rights, including sports rights.

TIM said that the planned JV would give it access to the experience and content of Canal+, one of the most important product and rights companies in the world.

The company updated its rules on agreements with related parties to take account of the ruling by Italian markets regulator CONSOB that Vivendi exercises effective control of it, giving the JV plan the status of a transaction with a related party.

The pan was approved by a majority vote of the TIM board, which separately unanimously voted for Genish to joint the board and appointed him CEO.

“We have a clear long-term vision: to return TIM to its rightful splendour, making a crucial contribution to the digitalisation of the Country, the creation of Digital Italy, through investment and people. TIM must have a constructive collaboration with the institutions and regulators: creating value for TIM means creating value for the country,” said executive chairman Arnaud de Puyfontaine, who is also CEO of Vivendi.

De Puyfontaine is handing over his responsibility for brand strategy and media to Genish as part of the management change. He will however retain responsibility for identifying guidelines for the development of the group in collaboration with Genish, supervising organisational arrangements and representing the group in its external relations.

“It is a privilege and an honour to have been appointed chief executive officer of TIM, a company that has a great history and a bright future ahead of it,” said Genish.

“We’ll continue transform TIM to be a truly digital telco. Our DigiTIM programme is based on some key fundamentals which are mostly focusing on providing superior customer experience, leveraging digitalisation to enhance the interface with our clients; smart analytics through big data to personalise our products and services; and adding video and multimedia on top of our best in class connectivity for a convergent offer, while continuing investing in our ultra-broadband coverage to support the evolution to the Gigabit Society.”

Genish was previously CEO of Telefonica Brasil/Vivo before becoming chief convergence officer at Vivendi earlier this year.