Foxtel CEO Peter Tonagh exits with Fox Sports’ Patrick Delany to take the helm
Foxtel chief executive Peter Tonagh has left the company after less than two years.
He will be succeeded by Fox Sports CEO Patrick Delany, who takes over effective immediately.
Peter Tonagh departs Foxtel
Tonagh joined the company as CEO in March 2016, replacing Richard Freudenstein. Tonagh was previously News Corp’s joint head with Michael Miller.
His departure comes two months after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission cleared the merger between Fox Sports and Foxtel.
Under the proposal, Foxtel – which at present is a 50/50 joint venture between News and Telstra – and 100% News-owned Fox Sports will merge.
The new proposal will see News holding 65% of the merged entity and Telstra 35%. The merger was confirmed six months ago.
Late last year, it looked like the merger was in jeopardy, after Telstra and News Corp were caught in a standoff over carriage fees. It was resolved earlier this month.
On January 29, an opinion piece by John McDuling in the Sydney Morning Herald suggested that one senior executive role would “fall victim to ‘synergies'”.
News Corp CEO, Robert Thomson, thanked Tonagh for his efforts and service to Foxtel, News Corp and REA Group.
Delany will take the helm, effective immediately
“There is no question that Peter Tonagh has been a thoughtful, far-sighted leader and his positive influence will resonate for many years to come,” said Thomson.
Tonagh said he was proud of what Foxtel had achieved in his time, but noted Delany was the “right person” to be at the helm of the new era.
“With the process of bringing Foxtel and Fox Sports together proceeding towards a conclusion soon, it is the right time for me to move on and put Foxtel into the hands of the person who will lead the new company. I have known Patrick from his years at Foxtel and Fox Sports, and he is the right person to be at the helm in this new era,” Tonagh said.
News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller, said Tonagh’s contributions to Foxtel and News Corp had helped the companies grow in a time of “digital disruption”.
Miller added: “We also look forward to working closely with Patrick, who has much experience with the people and opportunities that exist in both Foxtel and Fox Sports.”
Delany takes the helm after seven years as CEO of Fox Sports. Prior to his role with Fox Sports, Delany’s experience was largely with Foxtel.
He first joined in 2002 as director of digital before being appointment to other roles including executive director of content, product and delivery and executive director of sales, content and delivery.
Delany said Tonagh had left a “great foundation” at Foxtel.
“It has extraordinary assets, great people and a deep subscriber base. I’m excited by opportunities at both Foxtel and Fox Sports to give consumers something better, different and special,” he said.
Fox Sports Australia will be led by chief operating officer, Peter Campbell, while the final structure of the combined Foxtel and Fox Sports Australia entity is decided.
Campbell joined Fox Sports last year after four years as general manager of media and broadcasting at the AFL.
The changes are effective immediately.
WOW – I thought Tonagh had contributed an enormous amount of expertise and skill to Foxtel. The fact he was joint Chairman was testament to that – albeit a few embarrassing comments about News Limited – CBS – Ten by Tonagh and you quickly realise you are not favoured (or family!)
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Deckchairs. Titanic.
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What a debacle this business has been – Australian viewers need quality product when paying top price as we do for Foxtel…give us working functional products and give us value for money and decent service instead of robots and people that talk in circles please Mr Delaney!
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Well, staff recuitment freeze in place for the past 7 months within inside Foxtel, all Foxtel kiosks closed and staff being made redundant and many others like myself who’ve seen the light walked away.
The real problem systemic inside Foxtel is arrogance from Management, not listening to Customers and staff feedback. When i started at Foxtel it was a monopoly just 5 free to air channels and video rental were our competitors. The full Foxtel package at $120.00 a month was value given there was really nothing else, Foxtel was the great disrupter in the late 90’s. Today its Netflix Optus (EPL) Stan and the great disrupter is YouTube. Internally management doesn’t get it, still increasing prices, hoping customers stay loyal, rushing out rubish IQ3 software and not wanting to compete with the new disrupters. All we have done is transfer our customer service representatives to South Africa including Sales staff and seen appalling service given to our loyal customer base. Good luck to Patrick, 3 CEO’s in 3 years is not a good look.
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One of the very best clients I’ve ever worked with. He can make a massive difference. First thing to do Patrick is consider getting buckman back.
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Amen. I spent almost 20 years at Foxtel and I weep at what it has become
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Foxtel is seriously Jurassic in every aspect…. I am still a subscriber but not for much longer… cutting back on stations….too many ads….showcase is just a joke….repeat upon repeat…. no consistency in programming..movie channel is crap…. yep I will be shutting down my account by June 2018 .
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Just look at the success of Fox Sports, hopefully Patrick can bring some of that across.
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I couldn’t give two shits about who runs the circus, it’s the content that matters. For all the change at the top, the content remains woeful. Somehow I doubt Mr Sports Rights Budget will change much.
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You should have a career in stand up comedy.
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Bravo Patrick.
Can’t wait to watch you bring FoxTel back to its hay-day as the driver of Content, technology and commercial innovation.
The Australian Media, Technology, Digital and Content industry needs FoxTel to be roaring into the exciting future.
BB
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Hilarious!
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I too will be looking to move away from my Foxtel subscription after 15+ years. Too many adds and little value.
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The Government deserves its share of blame for Foxtel’s predicament given the bizarre (and Orwellian) ‘anti-siphoning’ regime, which restricts Foxtel’s ability to bid for premium sporting events
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Mark Buckman came and went. He at least saw the writing on the wall prior to leaving. Mark, he made 3 key points – Netflix at $10.00 a month doesn’t hurt consumers and get noticed in monthly household budgeting. Consumers are happy to pay for value, eg AFL NRL at $29.00 a month but not be held hostage to paying for stuff they dont want driving vosts up to $50.00 +. Likewise in today’s market people expect if you connect to the Internet you dont pay $100’s to do so and get locked into 24month contracts. He tried to change a few things like the way Retention of disconnecting customers was done, all he achieved was to disconnect the moral of staff whom lost so much retention comission and more customers disconnected. Its very sad, spending 25 million on new kiosks in 2016 then close them in 2017 lets not mention 50 million for Presto and the Executives Business class travel to South Africa CSI call centre whom take Foxtel calls emails live chat and of course Phillipines taking Technical calls. We then rush to develop out with a Foxtel wireless puck? We missed the boat again as Google Chrome cast and Apple Tv are in most people’s homes. As Mark said before he left, the main thing keeping Foxtel alive is live Sports, unique Australian content like Wentworth and loyal customers, but dont take that for granted as when they dont see value they will walk.
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Andy Lark must be feeling chipper about now
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I fear this will do little but it is a start. The morale, the culture, the poor management team that remained after six of the more intelligent exec’s left within six months when they could see the writing clearly on the wall. It will all take time to change. Foxtel doesnt have time.
The financials will take even longer and Telstra will want to be completely out before the time required to turn this around. The NOW puck was two years old functionality on the very day it was launched. It has barely sold and the market doesnt care about it because it doesnt have Netflix, it doesnt have the functionality of the Fetch or Telstra TV2, no universal search, hard to use and it only leads to… Foxtel content only. Why bother?
Churn, cannabilisation of the set top box to IP, no new revenues, sports costs increasing, old guard exec’s with no new ideas, finding another $X hundred million in salary reductions. Good luck Patrick.
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Well it doesn’t matter what CEO is in place at Foxtel, everything has gone down hill with Foxtel ,company cut backs , hire freezes , off sore and more to come in the future. it is just going to go down hill from here .to date foxtel is losing money like the casinos are making money in there sleep, there internet is so crap they are not reaching there subs soon that will be gone as well as there on sore staff, there products like the IQ3 is so shit, customer server yeah right would rather speak to my cat. I give foxtel max 1 year then they will file for bankruptcy .
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Patrick Delaney is the spitting image of Richard Quest
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Foxtel is chock full of rent-seeking managers, over-titled administrators, and do-nothing marketing staff. In short: Too much business, not enough show.
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Can anyone explain why Foxtel hasn’t gone for a lot more than 30-35% of households? US/UK cable is well over 50% of households. If they had more viewers they would get more revenue per ad which and potentially reduce the number of ads and improve user experience. Yes there would be a reduction in subs rev from a necessary price drop but surely having programs reaching 500,000 would offset this (as opposed to 250,000 max reach now).
Aside from this the picture quality of their live sport via the connected TV app is terrible.
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Nailed it @ChiefSquirrel
“Too much business, not enough show.”
IPO’s, revised logos, hardware, call centres – management have been distracted by everything except content, meanwhile Netflix is creating The Crown and Stranger Things etc.
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That’s a fairly glib cliché to throw at something like this.
I’m of the opinion that Tonagh was only ever there to facilitate the merger. Now that it’s done, he’s off, which was likely the plan all along.
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Mate if you want to pay $100 a month so you can watch your favourite sport as it’s no longer available on free to air then be my guest. I’ll vote to keep those anti-siphoning laws in place, cheers.
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Go back to your state media (i.e. the ABC). I suppose you think all movies and other forms of entertainment should be free to you as well..
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Final point, when the new Foxtel logo was being launched May 2017 it was made out to be something amazing. The marketing team whom created it all but fessed up to internal staff they wanted to be somewhere between a Facebook “f’ logo and a similar color to Netflix logo, hoping that people would be confused to click on line and try it out – people aren’t fools. Cutting chanels online hurting existing loyal customers like the loyal TCM chanel crowd saw 15k in disconnections. Giant Logos promised on the Foxtel MooneePonds building did not appear as promised last year as the building used to be a 10 year lease has reverted to a shorter term now with the merger of Foxsports and Foxtel internal asset reviews already taking place. Whom knows whats in store for what remains of loyal dedicated working front line staff. Maybe Patrick can inject life back into a once proud organization.
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You can put anything from the Google Play store on the Foxtel Now box (except Netflix), it’s an Android TV. Not enough has been broadcast from within the company about how useful this inexpensive device is.
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I worked for Foxtel until recently, its grim office in the middle of nowhere, with difficult transport links, inflexible work hours and one expensive cafe with horrible food.
There’s a toxic culture. It’s an open secret in the company that bullying, harassment and general unprofessional behaviour goes unpunished, even as extreme as forcing people back from parental leave, etc.
Anyone who challenges this doesn’t last long with the clique of old-school upper management, who view anyone young and talented as a threat.
Rounds of redundancies happen every few months and individuals disappear without explanation in between – feels like a sinking ship.
There’s also a culture of mediocrity – ‘yes’ people who don’t challenge archaic practices rise to the top. Innovators who think differently leave.
Existing managers then inherit entire departments they have no prior experience in, and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants and external agencies for work that often amounts to nothing – all while printers are being removed from the office floor for ‘cost cutting’.
Foxtel’s strategy appears to be clinging onto what’s left of its former monopoly on the industry, charging customers top fees for the bare minimum and operating with skeleton staff.
It had years to prepare for the arrival of competitors but has chosen to resist innovation. The result is a mass exodus of talent and a bleak future.
Advice to Management
A sign of good leadership is hiring people smarter than you and empowering them to do their best work. As long as you view people skilled in digital as a threat, Foxtel will be the blind leading the blind
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I have received the worst customer service I have ever experienced from any service company after 20 years with Foxtel , you really proved that we are just a number look into my notes when u requested technical issues & I spent 90 min on the phone only to be hung up on .
And that isn’t the worst the so being supervisor did not even put a request in to have a tech come out , never alone telling me I was on the priority list , it’s been 5 days without service as it’s the only form of entertainment for my parents which are seniors .
On the phone once again to be told that I’ll have to wait another 4 days .
Great work Foxtel !!!! ( NOT)
Superior customer service I say (NOT)
And it’s great to see how you value your long term customers (NOT)
This will be interesting to see if somebody really does care !!
Waiting for response
Angela
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Another bizzare unbelievable thing about to happen in the land of Financial stupidy after spending 25mil on opening and closing retail kiosks australia wide sacking staff were about to open a Foxtel kiosk for Sydney Easter show, flying in staff from melbourne and QLD to staff it…WTF !
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No wonder your Foxtel news is going bad,who employs Peta Credlin &Andrew Bolt Foxtel or Tony Abbott l have been with Foxtel for 15 years plus & have never seen anyone more bitter &twisted pair than these two l switch to local channel when these two come on timeFoxtel did something about them.
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Buckman destroyed the sales and customer business . He was an overpaid ego who contributed little and intimidated many . A poor decision based on ego and a reason why Peter Tonagh is gone .
Buckman introduced a new brand . It cost millions and delivered nothing . Poor
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