Nine unveils management shake-up in TV, Stan
On Friday, about five months since Laing was appointed as managing director of Nine's newly formed streaming and broadcast division, the former Foxtel executive announced a raft of leadership changes, including new roles in which several veteran TV directors will report to her.
Broadly speaking, Laing's plan for the division includes giving the heads of various departments control of television output; its paid-streaming service Stan; and its free catch-up website 9Now, including deciding which content is best suited to each platform, as part of changes that will take effect from July 1. Nine is owner of this masthead.
Driving efficiencies and drawing on resources across the company is central to the changes, including a merger of production teams from Stan Sports and the historic Wide World of Sports. Laing will lead a program to further grow the sport offering, with the aim of increasing advertising and subscription revenues as well as gaining additional broadcast rights and partnerships.
Michael Healy, who has served as Channel 9's director of television since 2010, will move into an executive director of entertainment role that includes responsibility for the commissioning of all content across TV and streaming. This effectively puts him in charge of decisions for flagship shows such as Married at First Sight, Lego Masters and The Block, as well as for Australian original dramas and other series on Stan.
Cailah Scobie, chief content officer at Stan, will take on the expanded role of executive director of entertainment content acquisitions, which will involve negotiating with studios to secure the rights for series, including big-name US-produced shows key to driving subscriptions and viewer numbers, for both streaming and broadcast television.
Fiona Dear, Nine's director of news and current affairs, fresh from launching a dedicated long-form current affairs and investigations unit, will take on responsibility for streaming services as the company hopes to better unite the work of journalists across its broadcast and publishing divisions, which include The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review. The plan aims to build on the collaborations between print journalists from the mastheads working with programs such as 60 Minutes that have occurred since Nine's merger with Fairfax Media.
No departures or redundancies were announced as part of the changes, which were explained to staff on Friday.
Additionally, the company will soon recruit a chief strategy officer and chief marketing officer for the streaming and broadcast divisions, while Nine's state managing directors in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia will now also report to Laing.
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