Graham Burrells has been named head of premium entertainment at Foxtel, managing the newly formed group of premium entertainment channels comprising showcase, SoHo, The Comedy Channel and the upcoming BoxSets.
Penny Win was the channel manager for showcase and SoHo in addition to her role as commissioning editor of drama before being promoted to Foxtel head of drama last month.
In other appointments in the premium entertainment group Sarah Frazer is head of programming, Fraser Stark is group operations manager and Mikki Katz group creative director.
The Comedy Channel had been in the general entertainment portfolio (Fox8, Arena, TVH!TS, 111 Greats and Fox Classics) which continues to be run by general manager Brendan Moo. Sarah and Fraser had similar positions in the GE group and Mikki was creative director for The Comedy Channel.
Launching in November as part of the new pricing and packaging tiers, BoxSets will offer complete seasons of shows including Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Big Love, The Newsroom, Rome, Entourage and Wentworth.
BoxSets will be included in the drama pack with showcase, BBC First, FX and 13th Street for $20 per month or as a standalone channel for $10 per month.
Foxtel executive director of TV Brian Walsh 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 was Foxtel’s creative director of movies and drama. “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,” he said.” I am also very keen to be renewing relationships with the comedy community.”
He joined Foxtel in 1995 as creative director. After working at BSkyB as creative director for Sky One 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.
From 2008 to 2012, he worked across Foxtel’s Olympic Games (Vancouver 2010 and London 2012) and Commonwealth Games (Delhi 2010) coverage as executive in charge of production and creative director.