Liberty revamps Austrian, Swiss operations

US media giant Liberty Global has appointed the MD of its UPC Cablecom business in Switzerland to lead a newly created Swiss and Austrian division.

Eric Tveter will become CEO of the international cable operator’s Swiss and Austrian region and will be based in Zurich.

Meanwhile, Thomas Hintze is being upped from MD to chairman at UPC Austria where he will also become a senior advisor, reporting to Tveter. Both appointments are effective from August 1.

Liberty said the merger of the two sister cable operators would allow the providers to focus on customer needs in both markets and benefit from additional economies of scale.

Diederik Karsten, exec VP of Liberty Global’s European broadband operations, said: “Eric Tveter is ideally positioned to take his new role for the Austria-Switzerland region with more than 30 years of experience in the cable industry and a proven track record at Liberty Global.

“In the course of the last five years, he led the successful turnaround of the Swiss business. UPC Austria is in a stable position today and both operations are poised for further growth.”

Last week, Liberty Global acquired satcaster BSkyB’s 6.4% stake in UK commercial terrestrial broadcaster ITV for £481m (US$824m).

That followed a US$23.3bn takeover of UK pay TV operator Virgin Media in February 2013, and a £550m 50/50 joint venture buy-out of producer and distributor All3Media alongside Discovery Communications in May this year.

Liberty also agreed to buy Dutch cable TV company Ziggo in a deal that valued the company at €10bn (US$13.7bn) this January. Liberty, which already operates cable TV firm UPC Netherlands, had previously been Ziggo’s largest shareholder with a 28.5% stake in the firm.