Zappia, who joined BSkyB in February 2010 to oversee the company’s sales, marketing and customer operations teams, replaces former Sky Italia CEO Tom Mockridge, who left to become CEO of News Corp.’s U.K. division, News International. Zappia’s former responsibilities at BSkyB will be split between existing executives Stephen van Rooyen and Chris Stylianou, who will report to BSkyB CEO Jeremy Darroch.

   Before his tenure at BSkyB, Zappia spent seven years at Sky Italia, helping the company form competitive strategies against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s pay-TV operator Mediaset. Sky Italia dropped Mediaset from its menu of pay-TV channels in July after launching a free-to-air channel over digital frequencies.