Ex-Seagram CFO Named Chairman of Fox TV After 6-Month Vacancy

The former chief financial officer of Seagram Co. was named Wednesday as chairman of Fox Television, filling a post that has been vacant for six months.

Brian C. Mulligan, 41, succeeds Chase Carey, who after serving as the company’s chief deal maker was appointed in June as chief executive of Sky Global Networks, News Corp.’s worldwide satellite operations.

Mulligan will not assume Carey’s role as co-chief-operating officer of News Corp., although he is expected to handle some deal-making. Mulligan, who will report to News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin, will oversee Fox’s 23 television stations, cable networks including FX, Fox Family, Fox News and the Fox Sports Networks, and affiliate relations and advertising sales for the Fox Network.

Sandy Grushow will continue to report to Chernin and oversee the creative side of the network as chairman of Fox Television Entertainment Group, with responsibility over 20th Century Fox Television.

Mulligan, who starts his job at Fox on Thursday, had been rumored to be the top candidate for Carey’s job for months.

Analysts say Mulligan’s biggest challenge will be to make News Corp.’s fledgling cable operations, run by Jeff Shell, as profitable as rivals such as Viacom and Time Warner, whose groups are older and stronger. He faces a complex restructuring of Fox Family Worldwide, the 50-50 children’s programming venture that News Corp. owns with Haim Saban, who is bailing out of his share.

Mulligan must also integrate the pending acquisition of TV broadcaster Chris-Craft Industries Inc., shedding and trading stations so News Corp. will come into compliance with federal ownership rules. News Corp. sources say Mulligan also risks losing station chief Mitchell Stern, whose contract expires in two months and whose renewal negotiations are not going smoothly. Wall Street is counting on Stern, who has one of the best-performing station groups in the industry, to improve Chris-Craft’s below-par performance.

Mulligan said Wednesday that one of his top priorities is to raise Chris-Craft’s profit margins of about 25% to News Corp.’s more impressive 50% level.

He said he hoped to expand the penetration of cable channels and improve advertising rates and licensing fees.

Mulligan resigned last month from Seagram after the spirits and entertainment giant was acquired by France’s Vivendi. Mulligan said there were limited opportunities at the new company, and he was unwilling to relocate his family to New York from Los Angeles.

An accountant by training, Mulligan became CFO of Seagram in November 1999 and was instrumental in negotiating and executing the Vivendi deal, he said. Previously, he was co-chairman of Universal Pictures.

Some Wall Street analysts and News Corp. executives questioned the depth of his operating experience and noted his low profile. Others say that he had plenty of operating experience at Universal Studios and that his low-key style will be a good fit with big News Corp. personalities such as Roger Ailes, who runs Fox News, who will now report to Mulligan. Mulligan said that because Seagram lacked a chief operating officer, he often filled that role under Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr.

“This is a natural extension of his talents,” said Chris Dixon, a media analyst at UBS Warburg. “He has very clear financial skills and was trained and brought up through Universal, so he knows the entertainment business cold.”

Dixon credited Mulligan with the integration into Seagram of the company’s $10.4-billion purchase of Polygram.