Luca Valerio Camerano, current CEO of A2A, e Massimo Ibarra, ex Wind and Benetton, today number one of the former Dutch telephony monopolist Kpn. They are the two remaining candidates in the running for the most important seat in the management of Sky Italia. The new CEO will have a difficult task, because he will have to lead the group in the era of the US giant Comcast and towards streaming and telephony services.
Between the two "finalists", Ibarra seems to have the advantage. The selection began at the end of 2018, when the current CEO of Italy Andrea Zappia he was promoted to Sky's content chief for Europe. It was Zappia himself, after having polled various candidates, who examined the various candidates.
Were evaluated, among others, the former CEO of Tim Brasil, Stephen DeAngelis, and the current CEO of Fastweb, Albert Calcagno, but also the former number one of Discovery, Marinella Soldi. The availability of would also be probed Marco Patuano, former CEO of the Benetton holding company, Edizione, and former number one of Telecom Italia.
According to what La Repubblica writes, in the last few hours both Ibarra and Camerano would have received a non-binding proposal and within days Sky will dissolve the reservations on the manager's name.
Ibarra has a long experience in the telephony sector, which could be very useful to him, given that in September Sky will launch some test offers on telephony, a sector in which it has signed an agreement with Open Fiber.
Camerano, on the other hand, has a different type of experience and could be the right man to transform Sky into a content and services platform.
Either way, the end of the Murdoch era will bring the group in a completely new stage: the new property brings with it an unprecedented portfolio of exclusive content and aims to convey its offer on all possible technologies.
Comcast-branded Sky wants to become a flexible platform, and, thanks to the agreements with Open Fiber, could also offer ad hoc telephone services, as indeed it already does in Great Britain and as Comcast has always done in the United States.
