BT has appointed boxing channel Boxnation CEO Simon Green "to run its new sports channel," according to Mark Sweney of the London GUARDIAN. Green has been hired as the head of the new BT Sport pay-TV channel and "will be responsible for output," including the £738M ($1.2B) of Premier League rights BT acquired from BSkyB. Green has previously worked at BSkyB and Setanta before landing at Boxnation, which launched on U.K. TV last year. Green will report to BT Vision Telecommunications TV Business CEO Marc Watson. The production contract is "being contested" by ITV. It is "not clear who the other bidders are, but they could include sports production companies such as IMG Worldwide, All3Media, North One Television and Sunset+Vine," which is owned by Welsh-based production group Tinopolis (GUARDIAN, 10/17). In L.A., Georg Szalai reported UBS analyst Polo Tang said that BT's strategy is to "use sports to drive subscribers to its fiber network-based pay-TV service BT Vision," which as of mid-year had 728,000 subscribers (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 10/17).