The premier league

The great and good of the European broadband and pay-TV industry gathered at London’s Hyatt Regency Hotel at the end of November to honour the winners of the inaugural Digital TV Europe Awards.

Eutelsat chairman Giuliano Berretta and BSkyB customer group chief Brian Sullivan scooped two of the top awards at the inaugural Digital TV Europe Awards in London at the end of November. European industry leaders gathered for a reception and gala dinner (sponsored by ADB, AETN International and P&T Luxembourg) at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at the end of the first day of the Digital TV World Summit to celebrate Digital TV Europe’s Euro 50 and honour the winners of our awards.

Giuliano Berretta was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award after 10 years as CEO of Eutelsat (which he continues to serve as chairman). Brian Sullivan, then managing director, customer group, at BSkyB received the Digital TV Europe Award for his work on Sky’s range of industry-leading products including Sky Plus and Sky Plus HD. Since winning the award, Sullivan has taken on the job of deputy CEO of Sky Deutschland, prior to replacing Mark Williams as CEO of the News Corp-backed German pay-TV operator at the beginning of April.

Also present to receive awards on the evening were Kevin Baughan, director of technical strategy at Virgin Media (named as New Media Innovator) and Pascal Dormal, managing director, Numericable Belgium and director, group development, Numericable (named as Marketer of the Year).

The Industry Leader Award went to Tom Mockridge, CEO of Sky Italia. Linda Jensen, CEO of HBO Central Europe, was named as Content Executive of the Year, while Per-Ola Wester, chief architect, IPTV, TeliaSonera, was given the Technology Leader Award.

The full list of nominees comprised: Romain Bausch of SES, Stéfane France, of Orange, Tom Mockridge of Sky Italia, Shane O’Neill of Liberty Global and Duco Sickinghe of Telenet (Industry Leader category); Kevin Baughan of Virgin Media, Yves Padrines of NDS and Per-Ola Wester of TeliaSonera (Technology Leader); Linda Jensen of HBO Central Europe, Tony Kelly of On Demand Group and John Taite of BBC Worldwide (Content Executive of the Year); Juan Alfonso of ESPN, Pascal Dormal of Numericable and Chris Winkelmolen of UPC Broadband (Marketer of the Year); Jeremy Allaire of Brightcove, Kevin Baughan, Virgin Media and Erik Huggers, BBC (New Media Innovator).