Authenticity Is Everything: Calli Tsipidis on Career Growth at Foxtel Group

When Calli Tsipidis was named Media & Telecommunications Lawyer of the Year at this year's Lawyer’s Weekly awards, it capped a remarkable nine-year journey from fresh-faced junior counsel to one of the most recognised sports and entertainment lawyers in the country. We sat down with the Foxtel Group Senior Legal Counsel to talk about building a career across some of Australia's biggest streaming brands - and why being a die-hard Rabbitohs fan had everything to do with it.

Q: How did you start at Foxtel Group and what led you to your current role as Senior Legal Counsel?

I started in October 2017 in the Fox Sports business. Kayo was just a brewing idea, and Foxtel and Fox Sports had a very different relationship back then – we were purely a channel producer supplier for Foxtel back then.

After internships at several law firms and an in-house stint at the former Football Federation Australia, landing a Junior Legal Counsel role at Fox Sports felt like a dream. I was incredibly excited, but very young and green – only a year out of uni. The development opportunities available to me were fantastic. I got to shadow incredible senior lawyers and learn the ropes directly from them. I never felt thrown in the deep end because the support was genuinely there.

A year and a half later, Kayo launched, and six months after that Fox Sports merged with Foxtel. Those milestone moments completely transformed the role, its scope, and the nature of the business. I went from a small Fox Sports legal team focused on sport to a much larger team supporting the entire Foxtel Group.

It's been almost nine years. I've grown from Junior Legal Counsel to Legal Counsel to Senior Legal Counsel. The way the business has evolved over this time has pushed me to keep learning and step into more senior roles with growing responsibilities.

Q: Can you give us an example of the growth opportunities you've seized during your time at Foxtel Group?

I was involved with Kayo from the very beginning, initially in a junior capacity. As the product grew, I became a key legal business partner. Then when we started building BINGE, I was the natural go-to – I'd already been answering the same questions for Kayo. I became a genuinely integral partner in building BINGE, which was remarkable given I was only four years out of uni at the time.

We built BINGE during COVID, with everyone working from home. Without senior people nearby to bounce things off, I had to quickly learn what needed escalating and where I could work autonomously. I also became the triage point for legal queries, mapping out who in our team owned what, who the experts were, and how to run that communication chain between the business and our team. I also learned how to help the business achieve its goals rather than just giving black-and-white yes or no answers – providing context, risk analysis, and a clear path forward.

As much as I consider myself a sports lawyer, BINGE is part of my DNA at Foxtel Group.

Being part of building an entertainment product when I'd always expected to work purely on the sports side was probably my biggest growth opportunity, and it was very cool.

Q: You advise across Fox Sports, Kayo Sports, BINGE, and the broader Foxtel Group. How has working across these different areas shaped your expertise?

When I started, Fox Sports was the product and the brand. That's evolved into Kayo Sports, and the way we do business has evolved with it. The early focus was on acquiring and producing content. Now it's equally about selling subscriptions, growing our subscriber base, and driving viewership.

There are baseline goals that run across all our brands, but each has its own nuances. With BINGE, we navigate obligations under studio and channel partnership agreements. With sport, it's media rights agreements and relationships with sports governing bodies. With production, we have more control but we're still beholden to what the sports themselves want.

Your position shifts depending on whether the goal is selling a product or producing and acquiring content. However, everything is intricately intertwined. It’s not just about ‘what the contract says’ or ‘what our position is under law’ – the relationships underpinning our contracts and obligations is just as critical. Understanding this has expanded my world.

Q: What drew you to sport and entertainment law in the first place?

Important context: I'm a South Sydney Rabbitohs fan. My dad (and uncles and cousins) are huge rugby league fans, and when I was young, it was the time where Souths were kicked out of the competition. We were devastated. I grew up during the resurgence – marching the streets, going to court, fighting to get the team back into the NRL. My dad had bought a massive framed signed photo of Johnny Sattler at auction, and it lived in our lounge room. That love for sport and team was ingrained in me from an early age.

Not long after the Rabbitohs returned, the Socceroos qualified for the World Cup in Germany – at that time, I'd just started playing soccer and became obsessed. So sport has always been a huge part of who I am.

Through high school I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I loved sport and enjoyed legal studies. No one in my family is a lawyer, so no one really knew other paths existed.

My Papou would say, "Calli, maybe one day you can be a judge." I thought, "I'm not sure that's for me, Papou."

At uni, the impression was that law meant working for a law firm –  that was it. When the opportunity came up at Football Federation Australia and I saw what in-house law looked like, I thought: “this is it”.

In my spare time, I play and watch sport, and at work, I’m immersed in the production and acquisition of it. Not many people can say that. For someone who lives and breathes sport, it's pretty special.

Q: Your role spans sports content, production, sales, partnerships, digital, product, and customer teams. What does a typical week look like?

Every day is different. It's very much led by what the business is doing. But across a typical week: I'll be helping our acquisitions team review contracts for new live sport or new channels and platforms or I'll be supporting Foxtel Media on sales opportunities across our content, products, and services.

On the production side, I'll be working on outside broadcast agreements – including innovations like our spider cam for cricket –  graphic services, and talent agreements covering our latest commentators, callers, and show hosts.

On partnerships and product, I'll be reviewing distribution agreements – which connected TVs carry Kayo and BINGE, and how we get our products front of mind when people turn on their TVs. I also advise on consumer partnership sales strategies, help execute the contracts, and work on marketing guidelines so we can get out there and start promoting.

Q: What do you love most about working in sports and entertainment law at Foxtel Group?

I can see the tangible result of my work very quickly. I can sit down that night, turn on the TV, and it's right there. I can go to my parents' place, watch the footy, and tell my parents, "Hey, I helped with this." That part of the job is genuinely cool.

Q: You've received outstanding recognition — Media & Telecommunications Lawyer of the Year in 2026, Sports & Entertainment Lawyer of the Year in 2023 and 2022, among others. What do these achievements mean to you?

Being recognised at that level, industry-wide, by peers, is incredible. Someone has to nominate you just to be considered, so I'm genuinely honoured. To then be selected means that whoever assessed it thought what I was doing was worthwhile calling out. It's a testament that the hard work matters.

In terms of how Foxtel Group has supported my development –  I have a truly supportive team and great business partners. I'm grateful that my managers and colleagues respect my opinion and allow me to advise all the way through a project.

Q: What excites you most about the future of legal work at Foxtel Group as we continue to evolve with DAZN?

We've already seen real opportunities unlock, for example people from within the business moving into global roles.

In the same way that Fox Sports grew into Foxtel Group when I first started, moving into DAZN opens up a global geographical landscape where what we do here could genuinely influence what DAZN does in other markets. We know we're industry-leading locally but translating that to a global platform is a completely different and exciting prospect.

By the same token, being able to leverage DAZN's strengths including their technological innovations and seeing how that shapes our products, services, and negotiations: that's going to be really cool.

Q: What advice would you give to Foxtel Group professionals looking to grow their careers and make an impact?

Be authentic. It's my favourite of our values.

To me, this means to be bold, speak your mind and take risks. It can be challenging to put yourself out there, but if you have an idea, say it –  you never know where it might lead. If you have a view, share it. If there's a project that sounds interesting, ask if you can get involved. Be proactive. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out.

Take advantage of the opportunities in front of you – whether they're part of your day-to-day or not. You could end up MC’ing a staff event, or make lifelong friends through things like social sport. 

And finally, be friendly. Say hi to someone in the corridor. Ask which footy team your colleagues support, bond over things beyond work. We bring joy to people’s living rooms – so bring that joy into your work life.