Fed: McGuire says he faces his toughest challenge

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-2006
Fed: McGuire says he faces his toughest challenge

Eds: Changes keyword from NINE



CANBERRA, Feb 10 AAP - New Nine Network head Eddie McGuire today admitted his toughest
challenge would be the transition from top rating TV presenter to company chief executive.

In an early morning appearance on Nine's flagship Today program, Mr McGuire said he
liked getting in front of the cameras.

"It's going to be the hardest thing because every waking moment of my life has been
about the shows I have been on, how do we make them better, what do we do," he said.

"And I enjoy getting in front of the camera. It will be difficult but it's another
part of your life and I'm very much up to it."

Mr McGuire said the trick would be to come up with the right shows, work them out then
invest the funds.

"We have to work out what people want to see, not what you think they want to see.

That's what we'll be into," he said.

"I'm not big on being number two in anything ever. There's no doubt we have o get the
profit up and get those margins right. That's not just for the financial community. We
are part of PBL and that's the riding instructions that I have - but not at the expense
of putting on top quality television."

Mr McGuire recalled his first television appearance as a 17-year-old schoolboy at the
Seven Network in Melbourne in 1982.

"The person who was supposed to meet me wasn't there and they said, 'Well do a standup'
and threw me the paper," he said.

"I said I'm going to be on the next train back to Broadmeadows here but we survived."

Asked if had ever dreamt he would end up running the Nine Network, he replied: "I thought
I'd be running the country".

"It's an amazing thing. From the time I was 17 all I wanted to do was actually ...

what you guys are doing," he told Today presenters Jessica Rowe and Karl Stefanovic.

"There's a wonderful adventure now coming forward. What we want to do at Channel Nine
is continue out tradition of being the foremost television station."

"It's not only the traditional Tens and Sevens we'll be fighting, we've got mobile
phones and the internet and all that type of thing. So we have to take a 2006 to 2010
approach to what television is going to mean to people."

"They have had a honeymoon period now Seven. We are back in town as of Monday, (when
ratings begin)."

Mr McGuire said he could only point to what he had done as a means of convincing critics
he could handle this fresh challenge.

"I have lived the industry and I have always found financial analysts far more prepared
to take on somebody who knows something about the business that they're running as opposed
to somebody who's been successful running a mining company suddenly coming into a television
company," he said.

Mr McGuire disputed the suggestion that he got the job because of his friendship with
PBL chairman James Packer.

"Let there be no mistake, James Packer's best friend is the PBL share price.

"It's not like I was unemployed and need a job and he was looking for somebody and
it's not like he was the only person who made a decision," he said.

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