Former Sky executive Andrea Zappia has been appointed chairman of Showmax, the revamped streaming service from MultiChoice in the African market.
The appointment follows Multichoice’s partnership with Sky parent Comcast, which now holds 30% of the business as it looks to compete with US streamers Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Zappia joined Sky Italia in 2003 and is widely seen as one of the architects of the service following the acquisition of Telepiu. In 2011 he became CEO of Sky Italia until his role was expanded in 2018 to Chief Executive Officer, Continental Europe with responsibility for Sky’s Italian, German, Austrian, and Swiss markets which he held until 2020 when he became Sky’s Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, New Markets and Businesses,
Zappia started his career in the multinational company Procter & Gamble, before serving as Global Sales and Marketing Director for Ferrari and Maserati, then Vice President Marketing and Product Development worldwide at Fila before joining Sky.
A relaunch of Showmax is slated for February.
