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Fox Sports Pioneer: Gary Green’s 30-year career bringing sports to Australian screens

A behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of Australian sports on screen from the man who’s been there from the very beginning of subscription television.

“It’s not often that someone can say that they were with a business when it started,” says Adam Howarth, Foxtel Group’s Director of Content Acquisitions and Sports Partnerships. “It's even more rare when someone can say they were there before it started.” 

Gary Green celebrates his 30th year at Fox Sports.

Gary Green is one of those rare individuals.


Having recently celebrated his 30th year leading programming at Fox Sports, Gary’s story is a testament to dedication, adaptability, and love for the industry. 


It’s a story that begins a long way from here. Growing up in a working-class family in North London, Gary played every sport imaginable – but his career initially followed a different path.  

 

"I was originally trying to be a bean counter," he quips. 

 

After leaving school, Gary took up temping work to get started, “and just ended up at this sort of fledging pay TV company in England, which preceded Sky, but it was called Sky Channel, and it was a very small operation.” 

 

Little did he know at the time that his first job in television as a Production Accountant was an opportunity that would ultimately redirect the course of his life.   

 

Gary’s boss was David Hill, an Australian who joined 21st Century Fox in 1988 to help launch Sky Television, Britain’s first satellite-TV station, and who would later go on to become CEO of Fox Broadcasting in the US.   

 

A willingness to get involved and work hard soon led to Gary receiving an offer for a full-time job.  


“And then along the way I met, met and married, an Aussie woman who said to me, basically, ‘would you like to try Australia?’” he explains. “I said, we’ll give it two years. I’ve been here ever since.” 

 

The dawn of Australian subscription television  

 

The move would position Gary at the forefront of a media revolution, as he arrived with a job waiting for him Down Under – to be part of the team responsible for launching subscription television in Australia, thanks to David Hill. 

  

A true Fox Sports pioneer: Gary Green joins us in September 1994 to launch our first channel.

“He wrote me the reference, which I still have to this day,” Gary recalls with pride. Remembering those early days, his words paint a picture of stepping out into the unknown.  

 

“Day one was really just a scramble to try and get content. What are we going to do? That sort of thing,” he explains. “We had literally a blank piece of paper and we had to come up with a channel.” 

 

The team relied heavily on American college sports and English rugby to get a schedule going – think volleyball, baseball, lacrosse, and a bit of the English Super League. Despite the uncertainty, they pulled it off, and on Australia Day 1995 , the channel was officially launched.  

 

“This is the launch of subscription television in this country, too,” Adam adds, noting the significance. “It’s not just the start of Premier Sports Network, or Fox which would later become Fox Sports. It’s the start of subscription television. 

 

“Who was the first face-on air?"

 

“It was meant to be Ron Casey, the Melbournian television legend,” Gary recalls fondly. “But as happens with live TV, Ron was set up in the studio in Melbourne, and… the cross wouldn't work.  

 

“There was an issue with the incoming line. In those days, you know, it could have been a microwave dish or something, I don’t know, you know – two cans and a piece of string.” 

 

“Someone cut the string?” Adam interjects. 

 

“Yeah, exactly,” Gary laughs. “So we just happened to have John Casey in with us on that day. No relation. And all of a sudden, John just donned the jacket and tie. And we rolled camera.  

 

“It was 4 p.m. on Australia Day, 1995. John Casey was the first man on pay-TV in Australia.”  

The content began to evolve quickly, with the Australian cricket tour of the West Indies in 1995 marking the company’s first big-ticket event.  

Putting us on the map: The Australian cricket tour of the West Indies in 1995, our first big-ticket event.

“That put us on the map, basically,” Gary says.  

 

By 1996, Fox Sports was officially named, and the network’s growth was unstoppable.  

 

"We went from one channel to two, and then a spill over channel, then Speed & Fuel TV, which became Fox Sports 4 and 5," Gary recollects. "It just kept evolving to what we are today." 


Amongst evolutionary technological change, some advice stays the same  


Over his three decades at Fox Sports, Gary has witnessed the transformation of not just the company, but the industry itself.  

 

"Apart from seeing it grow from a basic operation to the absolute juggernaut it is now in that thirty-year period, it’s the technology, more than anything else," he says.  


As Program Coordination Manager, Gary is responsible for managing the 15000+ hours of LIVE sports content coming to us from all around the world. It's a big, complex job.

 

“I was thinking about this last night – other than the live satellite content that we used to get, I used to receive FedEx boxes with tapes in them,” Gary laughs with a sense of incredulity. “And then I had to take them out of the box and walk them up to the tape room.”  

 

“So that was the sort of way we started off. And in those days, it was quite a lot off tape. And now, to see how the programs are being delivered – live coverage via SRT internet and everything like that."


Migrating to a cloud-based collaboration platform in the past few years is a change which Gary says has helped greatly in managing this huge volume of LIVE sports content.


When asked what advice he’d give to aspiring media professionals, Gary doesn’t hesitate. 

  

“Back yourself,” he says. “That’s what David Hill used to say to me.  

 

“Back yourself, be confident, and just work bloody hard. And you might be here for 30 years.”  
Finally, it's his turn in front of the camera: Gary sits down with Adam Howarth to celebrate his 30-year career bringing sport to Australian screens.

On this momentous 30-year career anniversary, Gary’s colleagues and friends take the opportunity to shower him with praise, with some playful jabs mixed in. From his love for golf to his daily routine of two-minute noodles, Gary has clearly made an impact far beyond his official duties. The personal anecdotes shared during his 30-year celebration speak to the kind of leader and colleague Gary has been. 

 

 “You’re a top bloke even for an Arsenal fan,” one colleague jokes, while others commend his kindness and consistency.  

 

One sentiment shines through: Gary treats everyone with respect, regardless of their position.  

 

“You’re unassuming,” someone else says. “You hate all this attention, and you really want to go about your business quite quietly, but really know that you have our admiration and respect as somebody of enormous skill.  

 

“And one thing I’ve always really admired about you is that you treat everybody the same.” 

 

“You were always so kind and caring and calm when I worked at Fox Sports and I started at 19, so I really appreciate you just being such a legend, for when I was super young starting in the business,” says another colleague.  


As Fox Sports continues to evolve, Gary’s legacy as a pioneer in Australian sports broadcasting is clear. 

 

"Businesses like this are built on the shoulders of people like you," a colleague sums it up, encapsulating the admiration and respect Gary commands after three decades of service. 

 

“As somebody who has seen you probably get woken up in the middle of the night more for this business than anybody else,” says Adam Howarth. “I want to say thank you. I want to say congratulations. It’s a hell of an effort. It's been an honour to share a fraction of it with you.” 


Reflecting on his journey, Gary remains humble. "It’s been an amazing journey for me," he says, “Thank you to everyone who I’ve worked with – they’ve all been very professional and I couldn’t have achieved what I have without their support along the way."

 

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