Markus Tellenbach, whose departure from KirchPayTV was announced only two weeks ago, has been appointed chief operating officer of SBS Broadcasting.

Tellenbach will start his new job from March 1. He succeeds Howard "Woody" Knight, who will remain SBS' vice chairman and focus on strategy, financing and acquisitions.

"Markus is a hands on operator [who] understands the intricacies of managing regional television stations in a variety of markets, with different audiences, regulatory systems and growth opportunities," said SBS chairman and chief executive, Harry Evans Sloan.

From January Tellenbach is to be replaced as chief executive of KirchPayTV by Manfred Puffer, who is currently Kirch Holding finance director. KirchPayTV was supposed to float on the German stock market by the end of next year. But growth in subscriber numbers is understood to be significantly behind scheduled growth. It currently has 1.7 million subscribers, compared with 2.9 million targeted for the end of this year (ScreenDaily, Nov 3).