Sky TV's new boss sets 'BBQ test' for company pride and happiness

Friday, 11 December 2020

Sophie Moloney is Sky TV’s first Kiwi-born chief executive in nearly 20 years and plans to continue commuting to work from Nelson.

Sophie Moloney’s elevation to the chief executive job at Sky Television may have been sudden but armchair sports fans can probably relax.

Australian analyst Morningstar described the resignation of Sky’s former chief executive, Englishman Martin Stewart, after just 21 months in the job as both abrupt and “disconcerting”.

But Moloney, 46, can certainly hold a candle to the sporting achievements of Sky’s longest-serving boss, former Arizona baseball scholar and New Zealand national baseball coach John Fellet.

Moloney played for the Auckland under-18 girls hockey team when aged 15, and continued to play at a representative level for the under-21s.

Before having kids she completed the London Marathon three times, getting in under four hours in her last attempt.

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It runs in the family; her grandfather Jack Taylor was a fullback for the All Blacks.

“My father was a headmaster of boys boarding schools so my every weekend day in winter growing up was rugby and every summer was cricket, with some other sports thrown in between,” she recalls.

“Sport, and rugby in particular, is in my DNA.”

Moloney has three boys aged 12 to 14 who she says are continuing that legacy.

Jack Taylor scored 45 points in his nine games for the ABs.

“I care about the game and the communities I believe it needs to support – the role that sport does and needs to play in society more generally.”

Although an avid rugby watcher and a Mako and Blues supporter, her own TV viewing is a bit of a mix.

It currently includes psychological thriller The Undoing, and she is waiting for the next season of medical drama New Amsterdam, “one of the shows I enjoy”.

“I do like Crowd Goes Wild, that’s a bit of fun.

“I grew up with my dad directing plays at school and I unashamedly adore musicals having listened to Andrew Lloyd Webber from a young age.”

Moloney’s back story may explain why Sky’s board was convinced there wasn’t anything to be gained by shopping around for other candidates.

She studied law at Canterbury University before a 19-year spell overseas, which included cutting her teeth in Sky UK's technology procurement arm in London.

Then the opportunity arose to go to Abu Dhabi to help launch Sky News Arabia, a joint venture between Sky UK and the Abu Dhabi government.

“We built the building, put in all the kit, and recruited the people and did stuff no-one had done before because it was brand new in that environment.'

Her next move to Dubai-based pay-TV company OSN, as the company's chief legal officer, put her working alongside Stewart, its chief executive at the time, before they both joined Sky TV.

Stewart said when he resigned that his long-term hope was always that Moloney would succeed him in the top role here.

Back in New Zealand, Moloney has had a different kind of travel bug.

For nearly three years, she has commuted on a weekly basis from her home in Nelson to work as chief legal and then chief commercial officer at Sky’s Mt Wellington headquarters in Auckland.

It’s a regime she plans to keep up now she is chief executive, with no plan to stop calling Nelson home.

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Moloney hesitates at the suggestion Sky might have a bit of a ‘blokey’ reputation.

“Last year, we were very focused on talking about our sports offering and we had a big rights negotiation with New Zealand rugby obviously.”

But it is the power of the ‘bundle’, including Sky’s entertainment offering and the news it carries, that seems to resonate, she says.

News coverage has become more significant in a year scarred by Covid-19, she says.

“Live news becomes like live sport during the American elections or a big global event.

“You ‘must watch it live’ because you want to see what’s happening. Having CNN on the platform – the viewership was phenomenal over the US election.”

Sky planned to continue to seek NZ On Air funding for documentaries and current affairs.

“There is more coming. Watch this space,” she says.

“The research tells us local content matters. Obviously being mindful that it can be quite expensive so we have got to strike the right balance.”

That equation may mean partnerships continue to be the way to go if Sky wants to give its regular news content more of a local flavour.

Moloney says her top “operational” priority is preparing for the launch of Sky’s broadband service early next year.

“I think it is definitely the right thing for us to be doing to provide value to our loyal customers.

Sky’s transition comes as a proposed sale of its OSB outside broadcasting business hangs in the balance of regulators.

'If, in time, the business case stacks up to add mobile, that of course is something we would also look into, but right now the immediate focus is broadband.'

Also high on her agenda is an investment Sky is making in new digital technology that customers won’t see directly, but which will be key to it taking out costs and bringing services to market faster.

'We have got to make sure we execute really well, starting with broadband, and continue to grow from there.”

But Moloney says her immediate overall top priority is more inward-looking and concerns Sky’s people and culture – “making sure Sky is a place where people want to come and do their best work”.

Former Canterbury DHB chief people officer Mike Frampton joined Sky in a newly-created role with the same title in September.

Another addition is Sky’s new head of broadband, Dan Kelly, who has returned from Sydney where he was working for Vocus, the owner in New Zealand of Slingshot and Orcon.

“He is very much about ‘the team’ and making sure they have got the right environment for them to succeed,” Moloney says.

Spark, starting under former chief executive Simon Moutter, made a very overt effort to overhaul its working culture, articulating a goal of encouraging people 'to bring their whole self to work', which included embracing diversity.

Moloney seems to be talking some of the same language.

'We have done a lot of work on what we want our brand purpose to be, which we will be unveiling soon.'

One of the key messages staff had sent about what they needed to be proud to work at Sky was the ability to “be yourself” in the work environment, she says.

'I do think it relates to diversity, inclusion and 'belonging'.'

People may not tend to be shy about expressing any negative views they have about businesses in the media sector to their employees.

But Sky should be celebrating the fact that it is a New Zealand company, Moloney says.

A project to design and release a new generation of set-top boxes is definitely on, Moloney says.

'There is a power in recognising that. We have a real role to play in New Zealand's cultural dynamic.

'One of the conversations we have had in the executive team is 'what is the barbecue test?'. What happens when you say you work at Sky?

'We want that to be something you say with confidence and happiness, rather than expecting someone to give you some 'raw feedback'.'

None of that means Moloney will necessarily have magic answers to the all the conundrums that have challenged her predecessors.

These include the challenge of trying to catch a share of the internet streaming wave while not neglecting core satellite customers or leaving them feeling taken for granted.

'Linear TV viewing is still relished by lots of our customers and of course the ability to record things and watch it when you want with MySky,” Moloney says.

'Sky Sport Now and Neon are two great options.

'What I do think we to need think about over time is how do we evolve that so if you want the fuller Sky service, how do you consume that via an app or another solution?'

Moloney says the journey Sky is on to bring a new set-top box to market will help it meet the demands for customer choice in the right way.

Sky has been testing customer-appetite for a 4K set-top box with a voice control option that would double as a MySky recorder and a media player that let people access internet TV services such as Netflix.

Moloney says that project is definitely going ahead.

“But I am not sure I would say, right now, whether the technology is going to be Android or not.

“I think we need to look at what is the right framework for us to make sure we can control that user interface, like any ‘tier one’ pay-TV operator wants to do.'

The conversation around being an 'aggregator' is probably more important than talking about a transition from satellite to streaming, she says.

'Let’s not forget there is still a significant tranche of New Zealanders who still don’t have access to high-speed broadband.'

Another thorny issue has been the resentment viewers can feel if they perceive they are paying for channels that they don't want to watch, as a result of the 'big bucket' pay-TV business model.

Moloney says she does feel Sky provides value for money.

'When you step back and look at what we offer, and you consider the amount of content you get '24 by 7' direct to your home via satellite, or you look at Sky Sport Now and Neon, then, yes, I think there is a lot of value there.'

But she seems to sense a trap in the question; that it might not be what all customers want to hear a new Sky chief executive say.

It is customers' perception of whether Sky is providing value that matters if Sky is going to be sustainable in the long run, she later emphasises.

Sky is 'looking to see what it can do'.