Sky News chief Angelos Frangopoulos lands new role in Abu-Dhabi

Sky News chief Angelos Frangopoulos is leaving Australia News Channel to become the CEO of Sky News Arabia.

Sky News chief Angelos Frangopoulos has landed a new role in Abu-Dhabi. Picture: James Croucher

When Angelos Frangopoulos was 14 he began working on weekends at 2SER, a FM community radio station in NSW. For the past 22 years, Frangopoulos has been putting ideas about news into practice at Australian News Channel, which owns and operates Sky News Australia.

Now Frangopoulos is preparing to leave ANC after accepting a new opportunity at Sky News Arabia as chief executive of the Abu Dhabi-based broadcaster.

The subscription news network he leaves later this year is currently enjoying a ratings increase thanks to a shift in focus, programming changes, strong opinion shows and the rise of President Donald Trump.

It is a big contrast to when he arrived at the network. ANC was then in the doldrums, unprofitable, regularly losing out to rivals and only available on Foxtel as a single channel.

By the end of 2018 ANC will operate 12 channels in Australia under the Sky News banner, including two new channels on free-to-air television for the first time.

Sky News Business is about to become Your Money — a 24-hour free-to-air business channel equally owned by Nine and ANC’s parent company News Corp Australia, publisher of The Australian.

In September, the primary Sky News channel will begin broadcasting on Bruce Gordon’s WIN network in 29 regional markets.

“It’s the right time for me to look at a new adventure, but this is a bittersweet moment for me,” Frangopoulos admits. “There are a lot of colleagues here I’ve grown up with. It will he hard to leave.”

A self-confessed news junkie, Frangopoulos admits he has much to learn in the new role, not least the local language.

“I’ve learnt a lot here that will be helpful in the new role but at the same time, there’s a lot for me to find out about the region and I’m looking forward to the challenge both professionally and personally. I’ve started learning Arabic recently.

“The Middle East is seeing a heightened investment in media. It’s not just a region where a lot of news is generated.

‘‘There’s a big push into digital and the shareholders have got some very solid plans to grow the business and I’m looking forward to being part of it.”

Frangopoulos joined ANC in July 1996, five months after the channel’s launch on Foxtel. After serving as chief of production, he was appointed managing editor in 2000, becoming also the CEO in 2004. He rethought how the network presented the biggest stories, making them the focus of the coverage and devoting more airtime to one live news event.

“We were not even on Broadway when I began. Before Sky News, the concept of a live news conference in politics was a foreign concept.”

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller paid tribute to Frangopoulos for developing Sky News into the country’s “most dynamic 24/7 news channel”.

“His commitment to all aspects of journalism — from education and training, to talent development and creating world-class quality news and business reporting — is unrivalled,” he said.