The CBC has hired Jeffrey L. Orridge as its new executive director for sport properties, effective April 4.

Now the hard job starts of ensuring specialty TV rivals TSN and Rogers Sportsnet do not continue to pick off the pubcaster’s top sport properties, as they did recently with Major League Soccer games and earlier with the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games rights.

“[Orridge] is an exceptional sports executive with a strong background in rights negotiations and strategy development and implementation,” Kirstine Stewart, executive vice president of CBC English Services, said Monday in a statement.

Orridge most recently served as COO and head of global business development for Toronto-based Right To Play International.

Before that, the Harvard Law School graduate gathered experience stick-handling varied sports and consumer product brands, including with Mattel and Reebok, that CBC Sports will be looking to exploit.

“Jeff understands the current state of play in the industry and has a clear vision of how CBC Sports can continue to lead the way, now and in the future,” Stewart said.

That state of play includes Canadian broadcasters increasingly bidding for live TV sport rights as TV viewers increasingly migrate to VOD services to watch traditional appointment fare like Canadian and U.S. dramas and comedies.

Orridge and the CBC will also negotiate for sport properties against private sector rivals like CTV, Rogers Media and Shaw Media with the deep pockets of domestic cable and phone giants.

“I look forward to joining the CBC team and getting started. CBC Sports is among the best-known and most-respected brands in the history of Canadian broadcasting,” Orridge said in his own statement.

“We are anticipating an exciting NHL Stanley Cup Playoff schedule, with women’s FIFA World Cup Soccer soon to follow. Our sports schedule overall represents an extraordinary opportunity and value proposition for both our audiences and our advertising partners,” he added.