[Satellite Today 8-15-08] Premiere, the German pay-TV operator, has hired a slew of executives from Sky Italia, as it looks to turn around its fortunes in Germany, in the wake of the bloated subscriber numbers scandal that has enveloped the operator in recent weeks.
    The operator, said Oct.14, that it had appointed Giovanni Brunelli as SVP of customer operations. Brunelli had been at Sky Italia for five years. Premiere has also hired Marcello Maggioni who is the operator’s new SVP of sales and marketing. Maggioni has also spent the last four years at Sky Italia. To round out the executive appointments, Premiere has hired Gaetano Pannito to be its new vice president of sales. Pannito is another exec who joins Premiere from Sky Italia.
    Mark Williams, Premiere’s CEO said of the appointments, “Our immediate focus is to improve both customer satisfaction and our rate of new customer acquisition. These appointments take advantage of the specific expertise and experience of these executives to achieve those objectives.”