McKenna has been Lachlan Murdoch’s closest corporate ally for two decades, coming on as a founding partner of Illyria, which initially took stakes in a number of companies including Prime Media Group, Nova and Network Ten.
In 2017, she was appointed chief executive of broadcasting, coming into the News Corp organisation for the first time. She was charged with overseeing three challenged businesses – Foxtel, Fox Sports and Sky News Australia.
McKenna was central to the merger of Fox Sports and Foxtel, helping launch the digital sports streamer Kayo and striking a new carriage deal between Foxtel and Sky, opening the door to millions in extra annual funding for the conservative news channel.
During her time in the role, she and Foxtel boss Patrick Delany also successfully launched Binge, to help offset costly content deals amid declining cable revenues. Earlier this year, Foxtel’s sale to DAZN was completed.
McKenna was initially viewed as the ideal News Corp representative to join DAZN’s board following the Foxtel sale, with the Murdoch-controlled company taking a 6 per cent stake. However, News Corp ultimately put forward its deputy chief financial officer Andrew Cramer, who is based in New York, for the role.
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Thomson called McKenna irreplaceable in his note on Thursday morning.
“The word ‘visionary’ is often abused, but not in Siobhan’s case, as her ability to perceive the future from haze-shrouded shapes on the horizon is nonpareil,” he said.
McKenna was previously chair of the National Broadband Network, and was selected by the Albanese government to be chair of Australia Post in 2022.
