TVNZ Restructures Television Business

MEDIA RELEASE

Tuesday 2 October 2001

TVNZ RESTRUCTURES TELEVISION BUSINESS

TVNZ Chief Executive Rick Ellis today announced changes to the senior executive team for the television business.

Mr Ellis said the decision to restructure the company's senior management team had been taken to enable TVNZ to remain competitive in an increasingly fragmented media environment, and to ready the company for the implementation of its new public broadcasting charter as a crown owned company due to take effect from 1 July next year.

"In recent months good progress has been made in addressing the television businesses' financial performance. An internal project team has identified $15 million of new revenue and cost saving initiatives for this fiscal year, but this is not enough to ensure the continued financial health of the television business.

"The decision to restructure the television business at this time is also in response to decisions by some executives to pursue business opportunities outside of TVNZ.

"The restructure will include merging TV ONE and TV2 under a new position, Head of Television. This role will be filled by Shaun Brown, who is currently head of TV ONE.

"Stephen Smith, the current General Manager of TV2 will move into a newly created role, Head of Online and Digital. Stephen's responsibilities will include nzoom and also the company's future digital channels and interactive content deliverables.

"Alan Brookbanks, the head of the Network Operations Group will be leaving TVNZ at the end of this year to establish his own business after more than four years in which he has made a significant contribution to TVNZ. Until that time, Alan will continue to lead the ongoing financial review of the television business.

"A new role, Head of Operations and Technology, has been created and will be filled by Neil Andrew who is presently head of the company's technology group. Neil's responsibilities will include all production operations, the technology group, strategic procurement, business improvement and the project office.

"Simon Dunlop, who currently heads marketing will be leaving TVNZ to establish his own business having achieved excellent results in positioning both channels' brands over the past two and a half years. With the pending charter's increased focus on public service broadcasting, the role of General Manager Marketing has been disestablished.

"The role of General Manager Strategy will be disestablished on 31 December 2001. The primary focus of this role in the past two years has been to develop a digital television strategy, which has effectively been completed. This means that James Munro will be leaving TVNZ at the end of the year. James has been at the cutting edge of the very fast moving digital environment and has made a valuable contribution to TVNZ.

"Unrelated to the restructure, The Head of Sales, Jeff Latch will be leaving TVNZ at the end of October to take up a new role as Director with Sportsworld Media Group. Until that time, Jeff will continue in his current role.

"The other senior executive roles of Chief Financial Officer, General Manager Public Affairs and General Manager Human Resources will remain in their current form.

"With a new senior executive team in place, there will be continued focus in the coming weeks on how the television business will be further restructured to support the company's objectives and new operating structure," said Mr Ellis.

ENDS

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