New Chairman For Prime Television New Zealand

New Chairman For Prime Television New Zealand

Mr. Sam Chisholm was today appointed the Chairman of Prime Television, New Zealand.

Prime Television New Zealand is a joint venture between Prime Television Australia and the Nine Network, Australia’s leading television network.

Mr. Terry Jackman has been appointed a Director of the company.

Mr. Chisholm is the Chairman of Foxtel and a Director of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL). Previously he was a Director of the News Corporation and Chief Executive of British Sky Broadcasting.

Mr. Jackman is a Director of Prime Television, Australia, the Chairman of Tourism Queensland and Director of Sunland Group Limited. He was formerly the Managing Director of Hoyts Theatres.

Chief Executive of Prime Television New Zealand, Mr. Chris Taylor said, “Sam Chisholm has changed the face of broadcasting in many regions of the world and we are delighted to have him join our company”.

Mr. Brent Harman will remain a Director of the company.

Board Director and major shareholder, Mr. Paul Ramsay welcomed the new appointments and thanked Mr. Harman for his contribution to the company over the past 3 years.

SAM CHISHOLM

Sam Chisholm is the Chairman of Foxtel, a Director of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited and Director of The Victor Chang Foundation.

For the better part of the past decade Sam Chisholm was the Chief Executive and Managing Director of British Sky Broadcasting and Executive Director of The News Corporation.

In December 1997 he retired from BSyB but remained a Director of the company until May 1999.

He was a Director of Tottenham Hotspur football Club from August 1998 until December 2000.

In 1990 Sam Chisholm joined Sky Television as Chief Executive and led the company through the merger with its competitor British Satellite Broadcasting in November of that year to form British Sky Broadcasting. BSkyB saw one of the most dramatic turnarounds in broadcasting history and now is the world’s most successful satellite pay television operation.

The company floated on the London and New York Stock Exchanges in December 1994 with a capitalisation of £4.4 billion. Two and a half years later, with over 6.2 million subscribing households in the UK and Ireland, it had a market capitalisation of around £10 billion, ranking BSkyB in the top 25 companies in Britain and within the world’s top 200 public corporations.

In 2002 as the Chairman of Foxtel, he was responsible for the merger of Foxtel and Optus, which resulted in the creation of a single pay television platform in Australia.

He was appointed a Life Governor of the Victor Chang Foundation in December 2003. In February 2004 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Queensland University of Technology.

Before joining British Sky Broadcasting, Sam Chisholm was for fifteen years the Chief Executive and Managing Director of Australia’s most successful broadcaster, the Nine Network. Under his leadership the Nine Network went from third and last place in the market to a long-standing position of dominance in programming, ratings and revenue. He is regarded as the most successful executive in Australian television history.

Sam Chisholm, 65, was born in Auckland, New Zealand and educated at Kings College, Auckland.

December 2004.

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