Foxtel farewells Kim Williams
Kim Williams had his final day of business as CEO of Foxtel on Friday, ahead of his new role as News Limited CEO.
- Published by David Knox
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Kim Williams had his final day of business as CEO of Foxtel yesterday, with a Foxtel Christmas party held last night in Sydney.
Williams has been CEO since 2001 and under his management he has helped drive the Pay TV provider’s digital launch, expanding from 40 channels to more than 200, the launch of Foxtel IQ, HD, mobile platforms and an array of interactive services.
When interviewed, Williams always had a knack for being articulate, forthright and consumer-driven, with a surprising ability to remember so many statistics about viewer numbers and shares.
But he was denied a final achievement in the takeover of Austar in his final week, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission delaying a decision and allowing Foxtel to make further submissions.
Williams will become the new Chief Executive of News Limited, replacing John Hartigan who left the print empire yesterday.
He is in turn replaced by Richard Freudenstein, Chief Executive Officer of News Digital Media and Chief Executive Officer of The Australian.
4 Responses
Foxtel has become unaffordable under Williams, and there are Lot more ads
I should clarify, I meant Optus Vision’s death knell, not Optus in general.
Probably a move that Optus regrets, as once people could get all the channels they wanted on Foxtel, that was Optus’ death knell.They should have made the agreement Without agreeing to have the same package prices.
Austar merger or no Austar merger, Kim’s greatest achievement has to be the content sharing agreement with Optus, finalized just prior to Foxtel’s digital launch in 2004. Foxtel’s digital rollout wouldn’t have been as successful, had Foxtel relied only on its existing partners at the time (i.e. without Optus’s channels, like MTV and ESPN), to provide channels.