“I had literally just moved to Majorca, and was planning to learn how to dance Flamenco,” she recalls. “So when Al Jazeera found me, it was absolutely the wrong time, but ultimately, I guess I just found the vision too compelling.”
That vision, it turns out, was the start of an incredibly busy two years as Al Jazeera English’s global commercial director. Tasked with overseeing distribution of what was then a soon-to-launch network — it finally went to air late last year — along with the brand’s international public relations, it wasn’t long before Oliver found herself thrust into a maelstrom of controversy and preconceptions. These centred primarily over Western concerns that the new network would be a mouthpiece for the reviled Al Qaeda terror network.
“It really has been a challenge both in terms of public relations and in the distribution,” she says. “For cable and other operators, in some areas, the name Al Jazeera really conjures up those images until you get in front of them and they see the depth in talent, like 40-year TV veteran Sir David Frost.
“It has been a gradual process, but at the same time incredibly satisfying, having people turn around their view and end up signing up and taking the channel.”
In fact, it was a protracted two-year public relations offensive promoting the network’s new editorial and production hires from respected news organisations globally, coupled with repeated explanations that Al Jazeera is often viewed as pro-US and pro-Israel by Middle East viewers and governments, that combined to form a difficult-to-reject proposition of true independence. According to Oliver, Al Jazeera English’s success in achieving that proposition, and its ensuing credibility, has largely been due to a widespread management mantra, to provide a real news alternative to the existing players, like CNN and BBC.
“One of our taglines is setting the news agenda — we’re not following anyone and that fits with the idea of bringing a fearless fresh attitude to journalism, that is funded properly,” she explains.
And it’s a strategy that appears to have borne fruit early, with more than 80 million households through a diverse range of providers across disparate markets tuning into Al Jazeera’s English network on day one of its launch.
A key weapon in expanding the broadcaster’s distribution base, it appears, is Oliver’s nimble negotiating skills in the boardroom and her ability to draw up simple and concise legal contracts early in the discussion process.
A lawyer by trade, she was virtually bred for the role, with nine years in private practice with media specialist private law firm, Harbottle & Lewis, before switching to the media world itself in the mid ’90s.
Graced with a welcome self-effacing humour — she recalls at one point during the conversation the reason she became a lawyer was because her parents informed her no-one would marry her — her first step with NBC Europe as legal counsel was prompted by the realisation that while she was not the slightest bit creative, she did in fact enjoy working with creative people.
“When I figured out they needed lawyers in exciting industries like media, that’s really why I decided to get into TV,” she points out. “When I became a lawyer, it was very difficult to explain to people what I did, but with TV, it was something that everyone could relate too, because everyone watches it.”
After a few years Oliver switched across to business sister network CNBC, first as general counsel and, later, senior vice-president, director of network and distribution, in charge of maintenance, growth of distribution and sub-revenue generation, a foundation that has sustained her in her current role.
Advertisers, Oliver notes, have expressed a great deal of interest in getting involved now that the actual product has launched, although she readily admits the network is treading a far different route to the competition on this front — a more ambitious and ultimately difficult one.
“We don’t offer regionalised advertising. Technically we can, and there’s nothing wrong with regionalised ads, but we’re really talking about being global, both in terms of programming and advertising, where the same ad can be viewed at the same time around the world.”
“But there are challenges because a lot of advertisers don’t have global budgets, and the ad world is not really geared that way, so it’s difficult to convince them.”
But if it’s one thing Oliver can’t say no to, it’s a challenge.
