Devesh Raj Replacing Carsten Schmidt as Sky Deutschland CEO

By Stewart Clarke

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Devesh Raj will take the helm at Comcast-owned Sky Deutschland, replacing Carsten Schmidt, who has stepped down and will leave at year-end.

Devesh joined Sky as COO last summer after took over the European pay-TV giant. Prior to Sky he was at Comcast in the U.S. for five years in a strategy role.

Schmidt will retain an advisory position at , having been with the business for two decades. He has been CEO for four-and-a-half years. Sky originals “Das Boot” and “Babylon Berlin” rolled out on his watch, as did the high-end Sky Q service.

Sky has about 5 million customers in German-speaking markets. As was the case with Schmidt, Raj will report to Andrea Zappia, Sky’s CEO, continental Europe.

Zappia paid tribute to Schmidt, who he said “has been a major contributor to Sky’s growth and success over two decades.” He added: “Having worked side by side with Devesh over the past six months, I have appreciated his qualities and I am confident we have found an ideal successor to lead Sky Deutschland into its next phase of growth.”

“I look back on the last 20 years with great satisfaction,” Schmidt said. “I wish Devesh every success and will support him in the coming months. Of course, this applies in particular to the upcoming Bundesliga [soccer] rights tender.”

Prior to Comcast, Raj headed up Boston Consulting’s TMT division in the U.S. “Sky Deutschland is ideally positioned in a competitive market environment,” he said. “I look forward to building on this foundation to grow the business further.”