Ex-Sky man Sullivan named President of Digital at Fox
June 26, 2015
Brian Sullivan, who served for the past five years as the CEO of Sky Deutschland, will join 21st Century Fox in a senior capacity as President of Digital for Fox Networks Group (FNG), a new role within the Company. Sullivan will be based in Los Angeles and begin his duties on July 27th.
As President of Digital, Sullivan will be responsible for both coordinating strategy in the direct-to-consumer digital video category, and driving growth across FNG’s outstanding portfolio of products, which include FOXNow, FXNow, FOX Sports Go and the group’s international Fox Play products, among others. He will also collaborate closely with Randy Freer, President and COO of FNG, and the leadership of FNG’s channels – John Landgraf, Hernan Lopez, Courteney Monroe, Gary Newman, Dana Walden, and Eric Shanks – to help develop a single global commercial platform to further empower the businesses to harness digital opportunities around data, monetisation and ad serving.
“Our portfolio of brands has the scale, reach and breadth to continue driving real innovation across the digital video landscape,” said Peter Rice, Chairman and CEO of FNG. “Brian’s track record – which includes leading the turnaround at Sky Deutschland, as well as helping to build BSkyB into one the world’s most successful pay-TV platforms – underscores his constant focus on putting the customer first while embracing new technologies and platforms to deliver the best experience possible. It is vital that we have a single executive dedicated to these efforts, and Brian is clearly the perfect person to take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead.”
“This new role not only returns me to my roots in the US, but also does so at a time of significant change within the video industry, one which is full of amazing new opportunities,” said Sullivan. “With its strength in content, creativity, and channels, both linear and on demand, I can’t think of a company better poised to benefit from these opportunities than Fox. Having known Peter, Randy, and the entire FNG leadership for a long time, I am incredibly excited to join such a talented team, to help empower our channels to further drive innovation, while providing viewers with a compelling and engaging product experience.”
Sullivan, a native of Philadelphia, returns to the US having spent nearly two decades in Europe in a variety of leadership roles in the pay-TV arena. For the past five years, he led Germany’s top pay-TV provider, Sky Deutschland – at the time a wholly-owned subsidiary of News Corporation and later 21st Century Fox – through an unprecedented period of growth, with the service’s customer base growing almost 70 per cent during his tenure. Previously, he spent 13 years at BSkyB, most recently as Managing Director of BSkyB’s Customer Group. Prior to joining BSkyB Sullivan held various senior roles in the pay TV industry in the US, including time spent at Viacom’s Showtime Networks.