Foxtel boss to take on News Ltd. top job

Foxtel CEO Kim Williams will become the new Chief Executive of News Limited following the resignation of John Hartigan.

Rupert Murdoch will become News Ltd. chairman, also replacing Hartigan.

In a statement, Rupert Murdoch thanked Hartigan’s 41 years with New Ltd.

“John was an outstanding reporter, an editor with few peers and has been an inspiring executive, initially as Group Editorial Director and, later, as Chief Executive for 11 years and Chairman and Chief Executive for the past six,” he said.

“Few people have contributed as much as John to the quality of journalism in Australia. He has earned enormous respect among both colleagues and competitors.”

There have been rumours about possible moves involving Kim Williams for some time.

Richard Freudenstein, Chief Executive Officer of News Digital Media and Chief Executive Officer of The Australian, will replace Williams at Foxtel.

At The Australian Freudenstein launched the newspaper’s iPad and Android tablet applications and last month launched The Australian’s pay-wall subscription.

He previously worked for seven years at British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), the last six as Chief Operating Officer, overseeing Premiership soccer and Hollywood movie deals, the launch of Sky+, BSkyB’s High Definition services and the launch of Sky’s broadband and mobile products. He was also responsible for BSkyB’s call centre and its 7000 staff, and was chairman of the British Royal Television Society.

Before BSkyB, Freudenstein worked in a number of senior roles at Foxtel He is also a Director of ESPN Star Sports and The Bell Shakespeare Company.

“I am absolutely delighted to have been asked by Rupert Murdoch to take over as CEO of Foxtel and to step into the extremely big shoes of Kim Williams”, Mr Freudenstein said. “I am really looking forward to working with Foxtel’s shareholders, its senior management team and all the terrific people at Foxtel to keep driving the business forward and to ensuring Foxtel continues to entertain, inform and delight its almost six million viewers every day” he said.

“Since I worked at Foxtel in the 1990s it has continued to invest and innovate, transforming itself from a company that offered 19 analogue channels over cable to one that offers its customers over 200 digital channels across multiple platforms.”

“Under Kim’s leadership Foxtel has grown rapidly and now employs directly and indirectly around 4000 Australians, spends around $580 million a year on Australian content with its subscription television partners, and has invested over $2.2 billion in digital infrastructure and broadcast technology.

“Kim has been a catalyst for change for the sector and Australian consumers. Kim has been central in fixing the dysfunctional industry structure in 2002 and putting it on a sustainable footing, launching Foxtel Digital, Foxtel iQ, Foxtel iQHD, Foxtel over mobiles and Foxtel over IP via agreements with Microsoft and Telstra.

Foxtel is currently pursuing a takeover of regional Pay TV provider, Austar.

Source: The Australian, The Age.