Seven appoints new head of Sport
Chris Jones promoted to Director, 7Network Sport -plus new appointments across AFL, Cricket, horseracing, Sport Digital.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Seven has appointed Chris Jones to the new role of Director, Network Sport, effective immediately.
He succeeds Lewis Martin who departed the company last week.
Jones was previously Executive Producer of Seven’s Cricket coverage.
He joined Seven in 2000 as a junior reporter. After stints at Nine Network and Thrive PR, he returned to Seven as a Senior Sport Producer in 2009. Over the past 20 years, he has worked on AFL, Cricket, summer and winter Olympics, US Masters, Australian Open tennis, Australian Open golf and more.
In his new role, he will report to Seven’s Chief Content Officer, Brook Hall.
“Sport is part of Seven’s DNA and a key reason why we are the most-watched television and digital network. We have a long and proud history of bringing the best local and international sport to all Australians for free. That continues today, with the AFL, the AFLW, the Brownlow Medal, Test Cricket, the BBL, the WBBL, horse racing, Supercars, surfing, the NFL, golf, netball, hockey and much, much more,” said Brook Hall.
“Chris has been an integral part of our sport team for many years, producing some amazing moments and iconic content. I can’t think of anyone better to lead our sport coverage.”
In further appointments, Seven’s AFL Executive Producer, Gary O’Keeffe, has been elevated to the new role of Head of AFL and Sport Innovation; horse racing Executive Producer Andrew Hore-Lacy is named Head of Horse Racing; motor sport Executive Producer Kirsty Bradmore becomes Head of Sport Digital; and cricket and horse racing Producer Joel Starcevic has been appointed Head of Cricket.
Also reporting to Jones are Executive Producer, Motor Sport, Angela Rampal; Head of Sport Production, Greg Smith; and Head of Sport Production Management, Lisa Peach.
“We have assembled a trusted and energetic leadership team who love their sport and will continue to innovate,” said Jones.
“I feel privileged to have worked with and learnt from some of the best in the business and now alongside our entire 7Sport team, I can’t wait to evolve our coverage.
“We are on the eve of an exciting new era here at Seven with the addition of digital rights for both footy and cricket. This means every single Australian will have access to live and free coverage via 7plus and broadcast. Can’t wait to get stuck in.”
5 Responses
Seven is using every ad break after goals in AFL to run the “keep sport free” campaign. Luckily there are lots of goals in AFL so lots of opportunities to take more commercial breaks and run more “keep sport free” ads.
Does anyone know the commercial case for broadcasting horse racing. I get its production costs will be negligible as I think the ATC etal cover this so sevens only costs are the talking heads in between races and the few cameras they need to film them. I also get it provides 5+ hours of content in an otherwise dreary time slot (noon-5pm on a Saturday) but it usually rates only around 100k. What am I missing? Does it generate just enough revenue to justify the effort (versus a 1950s repeat movie?).
With sport it’s about reach, especially the races, every viewer tuning-in for at least 1min or 15min here and there. The amount of wagering sponsors (where they’re legally allowed) would pay for the telecasts. While on the surface it doesn’t seem as high rating as other sports, there’s still plenty who love watching horse racing. Look at Racing .com and Sky. The cash the flows through that entire industry is unreal. And yes Seven Sport would still need a unit for their coverage, how else are they going to put it to air, even if smaller or not as involved, the Melbourne Cup was obviously the major one, now with Nine.
Interesting, no announcement of a new MD for Seven Melbourne, wonder if they’re thinking of going forward without one? If so, could be cost saving, given Jones is now an exec and will (presumably) still be based at Docklands, so could help oversee the market for Sydney HQ, alongside Seven’s Melbourne Director of News. Also wonder if any 7Sport roles still come out of Sydney, such as the business-side of their operation which used to (ie. Saul Shtein) but since seemingly shifted to Melbourne with Martin.
So what was that commercial that 7 ran in every, and I do mean every break on Sunday night on 7flix during the L&O:SVU/L&O eps I started watching from around 8:30 about ‘keep sport free Mr Albanese’?. It was driving us insane and it bordered on misleading. “There goes our energy rebate and our (some other handout)”.