Foxtel executive director of channel aggregation and wholesale Deanne Weir is leaving the subscription television business after starting at the News Corporation-Telstra joint-venture just over 12 months ago.
Ms Weir, who spent 10 years at Austar before it was taken over by Foxtel, came to the company as the first senior hire by chief executive Peter Tonagh, who re-joined the pay TV business in early 2016 after running News Corp Australia.
Sources said Ms Weir's channel responsibilities would be taken up by Foxtel executive director of television Brian Walsh and the wholesale responsibilities, related to Telstra, would be taken up by director of IT transformation Stephen Butler.
In an internal announcement, Mr Tonagh said Ms Weir will be leaving at the end of September to return to her entrepreneurial life which she began after leaving Austar.
"Deanne joined us just over a year ago to help jump start Foxtel's transformation from a traditional pay-tv company to a provider of entertainment across multiple platforms for all Australians," Mr Tonagh said to staff.
"Given her long history with Austar and, in particular, in working with me on Foxtel's acquisition of Austar, I was delighted to have Deanne join the team.
"During her time with us Deanne has had a significant impact; driving the Foxtel Now strategy and launch, leading our commercial relationship with Telstra and working closely with Brian and the content teams to review our content strategy and ensure that we have a content proposition that supports our Foxtel for Everyone strategy."
Her appointment was to help Foxtel manage the complex relationships the business has with content suppliers such as Disney, Viacom, Discover, NBCUniversal and BBC.
Foxtel, like much of the television sector, is under pressure from the entry of global giants such as Netflix and Amazon into the Australian content market.
The pay TV provider's own subscription video on-demand Foxtel Now is believed to have gotten off to a strong start since it launched in July, buoyed by the most recent season of HBO's Game of Thrones.
However, the challenge of growing subscribers still remains.
Foxtel subscriber numbers fell to 2.8 million as of June 30, down from 2.9 million compared with the prior corresponding period. News Corp said the fall was primarily related to the shutdown of Presto at its full-year results in August.
Foxtel's profit dropped to $US59 million, compared with $US180 million in the previous year. However, this was largely related to a $US58 million loss due to a write-down in its investment in Network Ten, which has gone into receivership and is being bought by US studio CBS, and $US53 million in losses from the closing of Presto.
Telstra and News Corp will merge Foxtel and Fox Sports, as revealed by The Australian Financial Review, in an attempt to reduce the complexity of the ownership structure and allow for News Corp to have a stronger influence on the company's direction.
Telstra and News Corp currently each own 50 per cent of Foxtel. Fox Sports is wholly-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
The merger will dilute Telstra's stake to 35 per cent, while News Corp will increase its stake to 65 per cent.
It is understood, in the short-term, the plan would not be to float the business as Foxtel deals with a number of headwinds and MrTonagh is given time to implement his strategy with Foxtel Now, which launched in July.
