What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

The last year has been dominated by sports for me. Nine extended its media rights relationship with Tennis Australia in November 2022. Then in February 2023, we signed an agreement with the International Olympic Committee for media rights from the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris to the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane. I was very closely involved in both transactions. The nature of our business has changed significantly since we last negotiated with either of those organisations (particularly the Olympics, whom we last dealt with over ten years ago). The new agreements needed to reflect the change in our business and the change in approach to risk that all organisations now take, having lived through a couple of years of significant disruptions and seen the impact those disruptions can have on major sporting events.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?      

Not so much technological advancement, but something technology related for any business with a lot of customer information – potential changes to the regulation of privacy in Australia are likely to impact in-house legal teams in the future significantly. We will have to navigate the challenges of what needs to change across the business to comply with new rules, the likely changing dynamic of what information the company collects and uses, and how long it keeps that data. This has already been highlighted from data breaches in late 2022, and the focus on that issue is only likely to increase.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?     

To be successful in the media industry, it is a given that you love consuming media, whether it is news content, documentaries, drama, reality television, current affairs, or sport, broadcast, streamed, on radio, websites, podcasts or in print. Being curious about what the business does, the industry’s challenges and its strategy for meeting those challenges are essential. Those factors affect how we respond to questions from the business, the approach we take to contracting with third parties, and how we identify and manage risks across the company. As an industry that has such a broad potential customer base — pretty much everyone in Australia can access our content in some way or another — we also need to be aware of how our actions could be perceived and the competing interests that could impact the business or the industry, including the potential for regulation changes.