SOPHIE MOLONEY SKY’S

The Sky TV chief executive has always been determined to upset the status quo, writes

Sky TV chief executive Sophie Moloney is making space for women in two worlds dominated by men – business, and sport.

It’s lucky, then, that she loves a challenge.

In the year 2022, Moloney is one of just 11 female chief executives at NZX companies, a small improvement on a few years ago when chief executives named Mark outnumbered women, but still underwhelming.

Sky TV is also ‘‘not the most loved company out there by investors’’, according to the Shareholders’ Association, and the industry is dealing with massive disruption. Customers are a source of instant and very public feedback if something goes wrong in the middle of an All Blacks game.

It seems a bit like building the plane as you fly, while also having to film the whole enterprise live in glorious colour.

Moloney became chief executive at the end of 2020. Last month, after less than two years in the job, she could tell shareholders that Sky TV plans to give $70 million back to them, net profit is up 41%, and revenues grew for the first time in six years.

‘‘I’ve always been really determined, and I’m not sure if it’s because we’re still in a pretty male-dominated world. And maybe it’s the determination to upset the status quo and prove others wrong but, yeah, I suppose it’s served me well,’’ she says.

‘‘I suppose I’ve always been really open and very keen for a challenge and not fearful of change at all.’’

Moloney’s was a childhood of two halves. She was ‘‘incredibly fortunate’’ to grow up in Wairarapa in the 1970s, riding ponies, playing in rivers, heading off in the morning with parents saying see you at the end of the day.

Her father was the headmaster at boys’ boarding school Rathkeale College, with its phenomenal grounds, and she threw herself into sports. And there were the arts – she would pretend she was performing plays in ancient Greece, ‘‘to my own applause’’.

She was a bit of a tomboy, with a belief that girls can do anything.

‘‘I’m told I was quite a precocious 6-year-old. I used to have a T-shirt and I had my name on it, which you wouldn’t do now. People would say, ‘Oh, we can see what your name is’, and I’d be like ‘yeah, but you don’t know my phone number’. So that was my level of kind of outgoingness.’’

When she was 13, her family moved to Ta¯ maki Makaurau, which she describes as a massively disrupting moment.

‘‘I was still really academic, and I achieved on the sporting field, but I kind of lost myself, and ended up in quite a dark place and didn’t like the feel of my own skin.

‘‘When I look back, I recognise what it’s like not to be able to be yourself. And one of our core Sky values now is be yourself, with skill.

‘‘To be in a work environment where you can genuinely be yourself, not a different person from home to work, is really important for me, because I think that’s when you’re able to do your best work.’’

She has worked ‘‘really, really hard, unashamedly’’, but also credits her struggles with helping her achieve what she has.

She became a lawyer, choosing commercial law over litigation. It ended up providing a good career platform. She ‘‘grew up’’ as a commercial lawyer at Sky UK, starting out in procurement. ‘‘I was doing lots of stuff I didn’t think anyone really cared about, but a lot of learning.’’

In 2010 she was chosen for a year-long leadership course, then an opportunity came up to help launch Sky News Arabia, so she and her husband and young boys moved to Abu Dhabi.

‘‘We went off there and just launched this news channel doing stuff that no-one had ever done because it was a new environment, new regulations, crazily different culture and language. So that was awesome.’’

She worked in other companies there, navigating ‘‘some interesting’’ relationships and political dimensions.

By 2018 it was time to bring her boys back home.

She became general counsel at Sky TV, then chief commercial officer driving Sky’s $6m purchase of Spark’s streaming service Lightbox. She was also part of the company’s $157m capital raising in 2020.

Then Covid prompted chief executive Martin Stewart to return home to the UK.

‘‘I had the opportunity to step up, having been at the board table and been through a capital raise and been through the rugby renewal, but it was still a call for the board.’’

She notes the tendency for women to wait until they’ve got 95% of the skills before putting themselves forward, and says the capital raising, fronting up to investors and really understanding that part of the business made up the last piece of the puzzle for her.

She was happy to inform, which was part of her legal role, but realised she actually wanted to be at the table making the decisions.

‘‘And that’s not without risk. But it was probably in 2020 I started to think actually, I’ve got the skills and wouldn’t that be awesome. And actually, I’ve been in pay TV for almost 20 years, so I’ve got some good experience. And I love being in Aotearoa New Zealand, and I love Sky.

‘‘When the moment came, I put my hand up.’’

Fairness and simplicity are among her core values, she says.

‘‘We happily partnered with Spark, well I certainly did, even when they had the Rugby World Cup, to deliver it into pubs and clubs across New Zealand. Because it was the right thing to do. And if you’re focused on that customer outcome, it does help really drive good decisionmaking, as opposed to being caught up in things that might turn into a bit more of an ego play otherwise.’’

Women in sport is something Moloney wants to see a lot more of. The broadcaster has made a commitment called See the Possible to showcase women’s sport, supporting the women on both sides of the camera.

Part of the solution is for tamariki, both boys and girls, to see women and girls achieving and become household names, she says.

Women’s sport still takes a back seat but viewership is breaking records around the world and there’s a momentum building.

As well as the more traditional women’s cricket and rugby, Sky TV is a key backer of Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa. Sky’s investment in and broadcast of every game has been called ‘‘both the glue and the rocket booster’’ for the country’s first professional women’s basketball league.

‘‘In the final in Nelson, my hometown, to see the most valuable player Florencia Chagas – who’s from Argentina, just turned 21, she’s a phenomenal player – showing a little girl of about seven how to do the skills on the court at the end of the game, that’s the ‘See the Possible’, but also really engaging women’s sport.’’

Top women’s sport this year included the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand in March, the inaugural Super Rugby Aupiki and netball’s ANZ Premiership, which celebrated its 25th year.

Next month, New Zealand hosts the Women’s Rugby World Cup, and next year the FIFA Women’s World Cup will be cohosted by New Zealand and Australia.

Moloney says there has been a big shift in attitudes towards women’s sport, particularly since the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.

‘‘The competition was so good, we had male colleagues who weren’t cricket watchers who became fans of cricket off the back of that tournament.

‘‘This is not just about doing it because it’s the right thing to do, it’s because actually, it’s really valuable.’’

Sky does not have broadcast rights to the Women’s Rugby World Cup, but it will still be a cheerleader, she says.

‘‘We’re definitely going to be there doing everything we can to promote, because it’s a phenomenal opportunity.’’

‘I’ve always been really open and very keen for a challenge and not fearful of change at all.’