Star restructures sales teams along channel, genre-specific lines

<p>The Star sales teams in Hong Kong and Singapore have been </p><p>re-structured along channel specific lines. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Up to this point, Star sales people had sold across all of the Star TV </p><p>stable of channels, ESPN Star Sports , Phoenix, Star World, National </p><p>Geographic, Channel V etcetera. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Ms Susan McAteer, senior vice-president of sales said, "All of our </p><p>managers and sales people have been required to have very detailed </p><p>knowledge across an ever-broadening range of genres and channels - our </p><p>feeds number in excess of 34 at present. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"We have concluded - as further alliances and content JVs continue to be </p><p>discussed - that the sales teams will be better placed in the </p><p>marketplace to offer our customers a better service, if we restrict </p><p>their efforts to smaller sub-sections of the Star portfolio." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>On the back of the re-structure, Star has expanded the team through </p><p>recruitment and re-aligned current staff to a specific channel or </p><p>genre. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>New recruits include Mr David Sultmann, Ms Yvonne Tay and Mr Darryn Poon </p><p>in Singapore, and Ms Sara Spivey, Mr Daniel Gellis and Mr Cedric </p><p>Martineges in Hong Kong. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The intention is to improve the quality of the service on offer through </p><p>a more channel focused sales approach. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>On the issue of network leverage, Ms McAteer said, "Our sales teams will </p><p>liaise with each other in working on cross channel deals. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"They will continue to incentivise volume deals and multi-channel deals </p><p>on the Star network as a whole." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Star TV has also announced the appointment of Mr Laurie Smith as </p><p>executive vice-president, China. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In his new role, Mr Smith will be responsible for Star's overall </p><p>business interests in China. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>He will retain his current positions as chief representative of News </p><p>Corporation Beijing representative office and chief operating officer, </p><p>News Corporation, China, and will continue to run News Corporation's </p><p>China operations. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Meanwhile, Star TV has appointed Mr Liu Heung Shing as senior </p><p>vice-president, corporate communications, China. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In his new role, Mr Liu will be responsible for Star's government and </p><p>media relations and marketing in China. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>He will continue to serve as executive vice-president, corporate </p><p>communications of News Corporation, China. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>