Foxtel on the hunt for another top marketer as John Casey departs
Foxtel group director of marketing, John Casey, has left the business, with Arianna Saita to step into the role in the interim while a new director is found.
Casey has been with the subscription-TV company for less than three months and is leaving for personal reasons. Saita joined Foxtel earlier this year from Sky Germany.
Saita was senior vice president of marketing at Sky Germany
Casey joined Foxtel from V8 Supercars, where he was in a similar role. Prior to that he worked at both Vodafone and the NBN.
The group director of marketing role reports in to Foxtel’s chief sales and marketing officer Kieren Cooney, who joined the company from REA Group in October 2018. Cooney replaced Andy Lark who had joined the company as CMO in January.
Saita, who was previously senior vice president of marketing for Sky Germany, and head of brand marketing at Sky Italia before that, has been working with Foxtel’s sales and marketing team on a series of strategic projects to strengthen the overall brand.
Cooney said Casey’s departure wasn’t an easy decision.
“John has made a significant contribution at Foxtel during the time he has been here. We’re sorry to see him go but we understand the difficult decision he has made and thank him for all of his effort,” said Cooney.
He also welcomed Saita to the expanded role.
“We’re incredibly very fortunate to have Arianna working with us at Foxtel. She is a senior marketing executive with significant international experience and are thrilled to appoint her to this interim position. Arianna has already made a huge difference at Foxtel with her extensive experience in media and entertainment.”
Foxtel has struggled with its marketing department, with general manager of advertising sales and brand partnerships Andrew Mulready leaving in March, and Adam Ballesty, head of sport marketing, also leaving earlier this year.
The changes come after Foxtel CEO Peter Tonagh departed at the beginning of 2018 to be replaced by Fox Sports’ Patrick Delany. The leadership consolidation was in line with the merger between Foxtel and Fox Sports.
Since then, Foxtel and sales house MCN have undergone significant restructuring, as MCN recovered from the split with Ten, and Foxtel parent company News Corp injected cash into the business to keep it financially viable.
There’s been discussions about the future of the business, with subscription fees flagged to potentially increase and sports costs to be cut, while sports streaming platform Kayo has shown some early success for the business. The business is reportedly looking to replicate the platform’s success with other content, including rumours of a lifestyle streaming platform.
Earlier this week, ABC flagged it was considering ending a $4m retransmission deal with Foxtel, in response to funding cuts from the government.
Another one bites the dust. Christ.
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Toxic horrid place
Why would anyone want to work there?
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FOXTEL must be on the shortlist for Australia’s Corporate Razzies.
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$$$
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Has John Casey ever appeared in a photo?
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Unbelievable. As a NewCorp investor I would be incredibly concerned with yet another senior marketer out. Foxtel subscriber numbers are going down while turnover of Senior Management goes up – not the stats of a successful business. Either management are completely incompetent at recruiting or once recruited – reality bites for those joining this toxic sunk ship. Either way – alarm bells are ringing loud and clear. Fortunately for Foxtel they have the media stitched up so no-one hears this news…..
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And as a shareholder I’d like to know why foxtel retail was ramped up, shut down and now they are hiring and kicking it off again …..what a waste of time and money …. when is Rupes going to get a broom in to clean house
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Well, were shutting down even the Retention of Foxtel customers loyalty team another 49 jobs gone to South Africa, seriously toxic culture internally, added to axing the EPL club channels. Never seen such a once proud Foxtel reduced to an internal shambles…. managers walking around with their laptops thinking like their cool driving their sports cars whilst the business is in the red and our customers move away.
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Maybe the retention jobs would have stayed if the retention agents didn’t expect to get ridiculous commissions for doing their jobs. The retention team weren’t cost effective as the money spent on commissions outweighed any benefit to the business. Blame your own greed for these jobs going overseas.
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Mate, management set incentives not the teams
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