Kerr, who joined Eurosport from Channel 4 in September 2005, was previously director of British Eurosport, the localised version of Eurosport 2, and the Eurosport section of the Yahoo UK website.

He will oversee local rights acquisitions, programme scheduling and on-air production for British Eurosport, Eurosport 2 and the Eurosport.yahoo.co.uk online department.

The pan-European satelite network began its "Road to 2012" Olympics scheduling in August, introducing new shows "Pool Talk" and "London Calling", and will add more programmes in the new year.

At Channel 4 Kerr was head of sport, overseeing its Test Cricket and horse racing coverage, and held responsibility for sports commissioning.

The company said the themed programming is intended to attract Olympics sponsors and advertisers early on.

Joining Eurosport in a new role in the UK will be Guillaume Canard-Duchene who becomes UK head of sales overseeing both the pan-European and local media sales teams based in London.

Canard-Duchene has worked at Eurosport for 15 years and previously established successful pan-regional advertising sales operations for the company in the United States and Asia.

Eurosport chairman Laurent-Eric Le Lay said the promotions reinforced the strength of the UK business.

"The excellent performance of Eurosport in the UK has been based on strategic investments in strong content on-air and online, and leading technology," he said.

"David has overseen developments in these areas and his appointment signals our intention to ensure the channel’s content remains at the core of our future progress and there is a continuity of approach and vision across the UK business.”