Foxtel rejigs entertainment, ups Burrells

Australian pay TV platform Foxtel has promoted one of its executives to become head of premium entertainment as part of a restructure of the management team overseeing its entertainment channels.

Graham Burrells, previously Foxtel’s creative director of movies and drama, will now head a group that consists of Showcase, SoHo, The Comedy Channel and the forthcoming BoxSets.

BoxSets, which is launching in November as part of a reduced pricing and packaging strategy, will offer complete seasons of shows including Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Big Love, The Newsroom, Rome, Entourage and Wentworth.

Sarah Frazer is head of programming for the premium entertainment channels group with Fraser Stark as group operations manager and Mikki Katz as group creative director.

The Comedy Channel had previously been part of Foxtel’s general entertainment portfolio, which also includes Fox8, Arena, TVH!ts, 111 Greats and Fox Classics. That continues to be run by general manager Brendan Moo.

Frazer and Stark had similar positions in the general entertainment group and Katz was creative director for The Comedy Channel.

Penny Win was the channel manager for Showcase and SoHo in addition to her role as commissioning editor for drama before being promoted to Foxtel head of drama last month.

Brian Walsh, Foxtel executive director of TV, said: “Graham has been a hugely valued executive at Foxtel since the early days of the company and this new role draws on the wealth of experience he has accrued across the creative, promotional, production and programming realms of the television business in Australia and internationally.”

Burrells added: “The announcement of BoxSets has generated a lot of excitement and it’s good to already be immersed in the creative and technical challenges of launching a unique new channel for our subscribers. I am also very keen to renew relationships with the comedy community.”

Burrells joined Foxtel in 1995 as creative director before working at UK satcaster BSkyB as creative director for Sky1. He returned to Foxtel in 2002 as channel manager of The Comedy Channel and Fox Classics.

Later he served as head of entertainment, overseeing local productions including Australia’s Next Top Model and comedy and factual programming.