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Foxtel exec joins AFL

Foxtel appoints Ben Buckley as Director- Sport and Foxtel Victoria, as Peter Campbell leaves to join the AFL.

2013-05-08_1053Foxtel has appointed Ben Buckley as Director- Sport and Foxtel Victoria, replacing Peter Campbell who will leave the network to join the AFL.

Campbell departs Foxtel after 14 years with the Pay TV provider including as Director of Sports & Olympic Games.

“We are sorry to see Pete Campbell leave Foxtel after almost 14 years,” Chief Executive Officer Richard Freudenstein said. “He has been a great executive and has many achievements to his credit, most notably his oversight of Foxtel’s award winning London Olympics coverage. We wish Pete well and look forward to working with him in his new role at the AFL.

Buckley has been Chief Executive Officer of Football Federation Australia (FFA) including during a time of growth for the A League, and held senior commercial, strategy and marketing roles with the AFL from 1999 to 2006.  At the AFL he held positions responsible for managing and negotiating broadcast and media rights, strategic planning, creating the annual fixture for the Competition, managing the corporate partnerships and sponsorship program and for the brand identity and marketing function.

“Ben Buckley is one of Australia’s most experienced and highly regarded sports executives,” said Freudenstein.

“His skills, passion and relationships will be hugely valuable to Foxtel at a time when the sports rights market is becoming increasingly complex.

“Ben also knows Victoria well and has broad and deep connections there. He will be a natural leader for Foxtel’s business in the State. I am delighted he will be joining our team.”

Buckley, who was also a player with North Melbourne Football Club from 1986 to 1993 joins from June 3rd.

3 Responses

  1. MPEG4 won’t happen… atleast for a long long time…
    the Digital roll out has been “underway” since 2001… everyone has invested in MPEG2, MPEG4 commenced in 1998, but everyone decided (I would guess price) to stick to MPEG2….

    not every TV is capable of MPEG4, not every STB is capable of MPEG4 (expecially the cheap ones I’m sure all those people “forced” to upgrade have).

    asked everyone to upgrade again won’t go down well….

    but in saying that, yes hurry up and go MPEG4….

    why not bite the bullet, get ready for the 4K TV’s that australia won’t have the approprate and worthwhile broadcasts to use anytime soon, and lets upgrade to HEVC; improve video quality, double the data compression ratio compared to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and can support 8K UHD and resolutions up to 8192×4320

  2. @Micheal89, another way to achieve that aim would be for the Freeview consortium to get lots more MPEG-4 boxes on the shelves and in people’s houses. Then we can all get more channels, and more of them in HD.

  3. Lets hope he can make Channel 7 finally give Foxtel, the AFL and International broadcasts HD vision for the games 7 produce. otherwise i hope the AFL Fixture Foxtel to get more blockbuster games next year and give 7 more of the Suns/Giants/Demons games

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