Former NAB, Virgin Australia and BOQ senior marketer Michael Nearhos joins Foxtel
Foxtel Group has announced the hire of Michael Nearhos to manage its marketing centre of excellence, reporting into chief customer, marketing and revenue officer, Hilary Perchard.
Nearhos takes on the role of executive director, marketing, a new role at Foxtel, with his hire coming as the company continues to centralise its marketing, creative, media and content communications function.
Michael Nearhos at Mumbrella 360
In a note to staff, Perchard said: “As we head into a new financial year with good momentum, I want to let you know about some important changes to the way we are structured that will help set us up to deliver on our strategy.
“As you know, we have undertaken a search for a new member of our CMR leadership team to head up our marketing functions. I am pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Nearhos to manage our Marketing Centre of Excellence as the new executive director, marketing.
“I am hugely optimistic about our team and our ability to deliver on our strategy to strengthen Foxtel and continue to grow subscribers and revenue across the Foxtel Group.”
Nearhos joins after a short stint as a strategic advisor across group brand and marketing for Bank of Queensland and Virgin Money, and was previously the general manager brand and marketing at Virgin Australia.
Prior to that, he spent over five years at NAB in roles including GM of brand experience and GM of brand and product marketing.
Nearhos begins his new role at Foxtel as of 14 September.
It’s the latest change within Foxtel’s marketing function after Perchard replaced Kieren Cooney at the top of the year. The broadcaster also hired Jacqui Abbott from OPR’s Pulse in February to come on board as group director of content communications.
News Corp recently revealed that its Foxtel subscriber base across streaming services Kayo and Binge had seen significant growth over the course of the financial year.
“Customer growth is very important. Three years ago we were saying that [Foxtel is consumed by] 25% of the country, which has been our story for 25 years,” CEO Patrick Delany told Mumbrella.
“Now we’re in a position where we can say nearly one in two Aussies have a Foxtel Group product, which means that we have real reach that we didn’t have before. From an advertising standpoint, we used to be a premium niche product, and now we are a premium reach product.
“That reach will lead to better advertising revenues.”
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Zanda Wilson was a reporter and podcast producer at Mumbrella, specialising in radio reporting. He left Mumbrella in September 2021.
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