Tony Ball is a British

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

executive, former chairman of Kabel Deutschland and former CEO of

BSkyB Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers ...

Biography

Born and educated in London, Ball received an MBA from Kingston University and later an honorary doctorate.

Career

Ball joined

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

on graduation as a broadcasting engineer. he was later a founding director of Champion TV, which launched the UK's first dedicated sports channel, The Sports Channel, broadcast on

British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting plc (BSB) was a television company, based in London, that provided satellite television, direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. It started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company ...

. In 1993, Ball joined BSkyB, where he built the success of

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

Fox Sports International

Ball went to Australia to manage Fox Sports Australia and from here moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to become President of

Fox Sports International Fox Sports International (FSI) was an international sportscasting and production division of Fox Networks Group, the television networks division of News Corporation and later 21st Century Fox that was active from 1995 to 15 February 2024. After ...

, where he oversaw the creation and the operation of sports television businesses in North America,

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Fox Liberty Networks

Ball then became chief executive of

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

's Fox/

Liberty Media Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company founded by John C. Malone in 1991. The company has three divisions, reflecting its ownership stakes in the Formula One Group, S ...

Network, which included the FX Network,

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

and 20 Regional Sports Channels throughout the United States. By creating cable deals Ball was able to significant increase the number ofsubscribers to Fox.

BSkyB

In 1999, Murdoch picked Ball to revive loss-making BSkyB, returning to the UK to manage the change from analogue to digital transmission. His reputation as an astute and intelligent marketer was solidified, on the back of doubling subscribers to 7million and taking BSkyB into profit for the first time in five years. The results were reflected in his basic salary of £762,000 and a £1.5m bonus; his total earnings during his tenure are estimated at £30m. After resigning in late 2003, he was replaced by

James Murdoch James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is an American - British businessman. He is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019. He was the chairma ...

, and left News Corp in April 2004.

Kabel Deutschland

Ball joined Kabel Deutschland as chairman in 2003, where he introduced premium internet, telephony, and television services and executed a €1 billion network upgrade. From February 2006 to September 2010,Kabel Deutschland was majority-owned by Providence Equity Partners. On 24 June 2013, Vodafone announced a takeover bid for Kabel Deutschland valued at €7.7 billion, 4 times the valuation at the time of IPO. The board recommended the bid above that of rival Liberty Global.

Post 2003

Ball became a non-executive director for various companies, which presently include: non-executive director of the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

cable company ONO; and a non-executive director of BT plc. In mid-2009, Ball started negotiations with ITV to become Chief Executive, but talks broke down in September over various contractual issues. Ball is a board member of the

Olympic Delivery Authority The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) was a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, responsible for ensuring the delivery of venues, infrastructure and legacy for the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games ...

for the

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, and a trustee of the Media Trust.

Personal life

His second marriage is to a

-national lady, Gabriella; the couple have homes in London and Spain. The motorcycle he bought and rode whilst resident in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, was placed in his office at BSkyB.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Tony Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Businesspeople from London Alumni of Kingston University British television executives Vodafone people BT Group people