Jeremy Darroch Interview - Chief of BSkyB

Gi: Where and when were you first introduced to the game?
JD: I first got into golf as a kid growing up in Northumberland. A lot of my mates at school played. Golf in the northeast is a working class sport, and you find the golf courses in a lot of the little villages on the Northumberland coast – places like Alnwick – are central to the community, so it was a great time in my life. The thing I love about golf is that it is inter-generational game. I was introduced by my father, and now I play with my son.

Gi: What's best golf lesson you ever had?
JD: I can still recall my dad telling me to slow down! I’ve not actually had many formal golf lessons, although we were recently down at Celtic Manor with the Sky Sports team and I had two very good tips: Tim Barter told me to grip a little softer, and Ewen Murray suggested I stand with my feet a little wider with a driver, both of which really helped me. The thing about good coaching, I think – and it’s equally true in business – is the really good coaches give you simple thoughts and uncomplicate what you have made a very complicated issue!

Gi: What other parallels do you draw between golf and business?
JD: I think there are quite a lot actually. First of all, both are about positioning yourself. Often in business, ‘Route A’ isn’t always the best answer – you have to think through two or three decisions, and it’s the same in golf, how you hit the ball and how you unlock a hole. They are both essentially long-form activities, so you have to accept that things can go wrong, and not get too worried about that. But when things do go wrong, it’s vital you don’t follow a bad decision with another bad decision. In other words, you don’t follow one bad shot with another bad shot. So thinking clearly in those situations is critical. And then the third thing that springs to mind is that you have to be willing to embrace risk. You can play conservatively, both in golf and in business, and do well, but there is a point at which you have to be willing to be more aggressive and take a risk. In business you have to be willing to invest. When I think of the development of HD or 3D television technology, these are markets we have effectively created in the UK – and at a time when many people were saying they would never work. So there’s a point when you have to say, ‘Right, now’s the time to the attack!’.

Gi: Where is your favourite golfing destination?
JD: It would have to be playing links golf in Scotland. I’ve actually just returned from a trip with my brother-in-law and my son. We played five times, including the Old Course in St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. It was very special. We were lucky with the weather, too. We had very little rain, a gentle breeze and a fair bit of sunshine. You really can’t beat it.

Gi: What piece of new technology has most improved your game?
JD: Probably the driver. I suspect it hasn’t had such a big effect on very low handicap players but for someone like me who plays off 8, and who doesn’t get to play as often as he’d like, you can pick up these modern drivers and feel pretty confident that you’ll be fairly OK.

Gi: A dream fourball?
JD: OK, so it’s me and Seve versus my son Matthew and Graeme McDowell. But here’s the deal – both Seve and me are time-warped about 20 years back.And the thing is, I’m guessing that we would spray it all over the place and then specialise in getting up and down –which would really get right up their nose!

Gi: What’s the best round of golf you’ve ever played?
JD: I’ve had a few rounds where I’ve finished a couple over par. Probably the best of those was at Loch Lomond a few years ago – I actually birdied three of the last five holes, including holing a bunker shot, which is unheard of for me. It reminded me that in golf, just as in business, you never really know what’s around the corner. Good or bad.

Gi: What’s the main strength of your game?
JD: I’d say from 100 yards and in. I’m usually quite consistent with my wedges and can normally get the ball close enough to give myself a chance with the putter.

Gi: And weaknesses?
JD: A couple of things – off the tee I tend to hit at least one destructive shot in a round, which says something about my technique. The other thing I’ve found more difficult recently is maintaining concentration for a full round. I tend to play nine holes more often these days, and when I do get to play 18 I struggle to stay focused. I might play 13 or 14 holes fairly well and then lose concentration. The time it takes to play 18 holes, I think, is a real long-term threat to the game. Four or five hours is just too long. There is no excuse for a two ball not being round in anything less than three hours.

Gi: What’s your favourite gadget?
JD: My iPad. In fact, I have to show you this [cue demo as he calls up Sky Sports News]. You have basically all of the main sports, upto- the-minute news, video streaming. You can go to the mobile TV app, which gives you all of the channels. There is an additional fee over and above your domestic subscription for the Mobile TV, but it’s a great facility for those who want to stay connected.

Gi: Who do you most admire in your own field of business?
JD: Rather than any single individual, the people I admire most are the generation we have coming through at Sky. We have some really outstanding people and we’re a young company. We have a great pool of talent and if you look across the organisation, well, it’s just going to keep getting better. I am constantly impressed by new people – how complete they are. They have no glass ceiling and they are very positive.

Gi: Management Today recently ranked Sky as one of the most admired businesses in the UK – to what do you attribute that?
JD: We are a fundamentally positive business and we try to control our own destiny. We are always open to new ideas and we do interesting things – we are trying to do more in terms of putting something back. We are currently involved with schools, using our power in sports to work with young kids with social or behavioural problems, using the power of Sky Sports to help them get their lives back on track. Golf is a part of that programme. And we are getting some incredibly strong results.

Gi: Being such a terrific visual spectacle, golf must be one of the sports likely to benefit most from 3D TV, which you are rolling out at the Ryder Cup. How challenging is filming golf in 3D?
JD: It’s challenging and exciting because it’s the next real frontier. The 2006 Ryder Cup at the K Club was the first time we shot golf in HD, which was fantastic at the time. 3D takes it to the next level, as you really do get perspective of the course, you can see the contours and the details of each shot. At Celtic Manor we will shoot all of the games on the 1st tee and then jump to the 4th or the 5th hole and catch them up again. We will also have a number of roving cameras to follow any particularly exciting match. The thing we are learning with 3D is that it provides an entirely different perspective on the game. The camera angles are different, the art direction is different. So producers and cameramen have a blank canvas in terms of what we deliver. I think our audience will be fascinated by it. There is just so much more richness in terms of what you – the viewer – sees.

Gi: When you look at the issues facing golf, with falling participation numbers and golf clubs struggling to attract members, what can Sky do in terms of helping the game and attracting new players?
JD: Sky can help in a number of ways. First of all, it would be a mistake to overlook the investment we make in terms of securing broadcast rights. That really is a significant financial commitment. The relationship that we have with the European Tour has been one of the most productive partnerships of any sport, anywhere, and it’s no surprise that the European Tour has done so well over the last few years. The Ryder Cup is a good example, I think, of where the dedicated coverage we can give an event resonates broadly with advertisers – you never miss a shot. We will cover 150 tournaments across five continents in a season, showing the world’s best golfers week in and week out, and we can create on the back of that really interesting stories – which hopefully will attract people into the game.

Gi: But is showing a diet of 72-hole tournament golf really the way to grow the game? There is nothing on the Sky schedule at the moment dedicated to teaching golf, or educating people on how to take up the game?
JD: A year ago when we didn’t have the PGA Tour we had a programme called Golf Night, which was more of a magazine-style show, featuring analysis, teaching in the studio and so on. Now we have the US golf with the regular advertising breaks, we are very aware that we have a lot of time to fill and we intend to do more of that. We are currently in the process of moving all of Sky Sports production into a brand new facility here on campus and that will enable us to deliver the studio production you talk about. It’s all about trying to strike the right balance in our output. I think one of the things we have increasingly done well at tournaments is feature the activity on the practice ground – i.e. talk to the players and show a little bit more of what goes on behind the scenes. Whether it’s golf, another sport or the arts, if you are passionate about something you want to learn about it and we see our job as being to really get under the skin of the sport. That’s a big opportunity for us.

Gi: How easy a decision was it for you to pick up the PGA coverage when it became available with the collapse of Setanta?
JD: Pretty straightforward. I think any time a major sporting event becomes available we would be interested in it. We have a good relationship with the PGA Tour and we were disappointed to lose it. We want every major golf event on Sky. So when the rights to the PGA Tour became available again we were very keen to do it.

Gi: Do you think certain sports events should be protected and shown free to air – the so-called ‘Crown Jewels’
JD: I think it should be down to the sports’ governing body. And in my experience the governing bodies are very capable, and really they are best placed to determine what is in the best interests for their sport. So I think there are a variety of factors, and actually some events will stay free to air. Others will like the investment we can put in and the security we can give – golf being a good example. Cricket is another, where the economics are quite challenging. But it should be for the governing body to decide. All we can do is go in and show them what we can offer.

Gi: You are often referred to as one of the most powerful men in sports – how do you react to that responsibility?
JD: My responsibility is to BSkyB and all of us at Sky Sports take our commitment to sport very seriously. About half of our broadcast hours would be dedicated to the major sports (football, golf, tennis, cricket, rugby) but the other half are minority sports – the schedule today, for instance, features schools athletics, women’s netball and women’s cricket. These are sports that would not ordinarily get much in the way of broadcast coverage – we are giving them oxygen and with that they can expand. We have a heavy commitment to UK cycling and in addition to elite riders we hope to get a million more people cycling regularly. So, yes, I’m very aware of those broad responsibilities. We are here for the long term.

Gi: Consumers are increasingly being tempted by Sky Sports packages on other platforms (Virgin, BT). What is your position on Ofcom's ruling on the sale of your services to a third party?
JD: The sort of intervention Ofcom proposes, where, in effect, you cap the value of sports, is fundamentally bad for sport. I don’t think anyone should be under any illusion about that. All that inevitably does is restrict the appetite for businesses to invest. If you say you are going to cap a return then you are going to limit investment, and this is something golf recognises very clearly. The risk of that flowing through in terms of sports rights – which directly impacts the amount of money going into the game – is really quite acute. I also think that businesses that do invest and take risks should have the prospects of a fair reward, and that’s all we ask. What Ofcom is effectively saying is, we can see you’ve been successful, you’ve taken risks, and now what we are going to do is top-slice that and hand it to one or two of your big competitors – who have not invested a penny. That is fundamentally wrong. When you write out a cheque for, say, three years of coverage of the Premiership, these are huge sums of money. These are big commitments and not for the fainthearted. Which is why I think what Ofcom is proposing is just wrong and why we are taking them to court.

Gi: You played Celtic Manor recently – what did you think of the golf course?
JD: I thought it was really good. I wasn’t sure before I went, but I think it is going to work really well. There are certain holes, particularly near the end, where you get a wonderful vista of the entire course, and you can imagine multiple games with the crowds. I think it is going to be a fantastic event.

Gi: What sort of CEO do you think Monty would make?
JD: Ah, I’ve really never thought about that. He seems extremely smart guy and would be pretty good. Inevitably, in any large organisation, the role of the modern-day CEO is less to say, ‘I’m at the top of the organisation’ and more to say ‘My job is to get the best out of the whole organisation’. Really good CEOs have the ability to position themselves within the team as opposed to above the team, and I would assume it’s quite similar to the role of being captain in the Ryder Cup. From everything I’ve seen, I’d say he’s very aware of that.