KEY POINTS:
Maybe it was because of his early experience as a stand-up comic and MC at a student comedy club in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.
At Tuesday's media and analysts briefing to release Sky Television's half-year financial results, Sky chief executive John Fellet looks remarkably comfortable on the
stage.
He points to a Powerpoint display and says: "You might look at ebitda figure here and say 'Hey, that's down' - and that feeling may recur later through this presentation - but if you take into account ..."
Then Fellet cheerfully guides analysts through volumes of statistics about churn rates and improved spending per subscriber, leaving the very firm impression that this is a company under tight management control.
Brisk, concise and disinclined to small talk, he is highly focused on the bottom line.
But staff say beneath the staccato-voiced, focused exterior there is an entertainer - a business mind with an extraordinarily dry sense of humour.
"I was the Ellen DeGeneres of student comedy," chuckles Fellet, who still loves stand-up and occasionally goes to see comedians at Auckland's Classic Comedy Club.
"As a student I had a routine - I guess it was kind'a like David Letterman - but I only did it for two or three years.
"I realised that sometimes - maybe you had just broken up with your girlfriend or something bad had happened - you didn't want to be funny."
The audience is unforgiving of the stand-up comic who dies on stage. The stock market can also be unforgiving and took seriously Sky's half-year report and its small downgrade of forecasts for the full year.
The sentiment wiped 27 cents, or 4 per cent, off the share price the day of the briefing.
Citigroup analyst Kar Yue Yeo pointed to "softer [profit] guidance and the apparent loss of operating leverage we have come to expect from a well-oiled management team".
But Rob Mercer, of stockbroker Forsyth Barr in Wellington, was more forgiving, pointing out Sky had reduced the profit forecast by just 1 per cent while preparing for expansion.
"It is putting itself in a fantastic position for the future," Mercer said.
Sky's single-minded focus on dominating its market is reminiscent of its 44 per cent owner and controlling shareholder, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
Its business is to be New Zealand's King of Content as it prepares to capitalise on the rapid expansion of new media.
At the same time it is preparing for the end of its monopoly on digital television with the arrival of digital free-to-air platform Freeview.
"There are a whole bunch of new media going into people's homes, and we want to supply them," says Fellet.
Sky is developing its own suite of IPTV (internet protocol television) channels for the launch of a new MySky set-top box next March. MySky 2 will be an advance on the current personal recorder and allow customers to watch Sky's new IPTV channels and some premium high-definition channels that offer better quality pictures.
As the new formats are developed, Hollywood studios will be happier dealing with Sky as they have for the past 20 years rather than with telcos starting a new media venture.
Sky now has IPTV rights to all the programmes it shows on its digital channels.
"We watch for emerging media technologies - WiMAX is one likely option - and shell out a little extra to have them covered," says Fellet.
Fellet has been careful not to cook the golden goose, working with telcos instead of competing against them.
But he was not so shy with free-to-air television with the $30 million purchase Prime last year.
New Zealand is the only place in the world a pay-TV monopoly has bought into free-to-air television. Competitors CanWest MediaWorks and TVNZ believe it is a strategic decision to use its buying power to undermine competitors who have the bulk of the free-to-air market.
New Zealand competition laws are impotent in dealing with Sky's potential dominance of overseas content rights.
Fellet is dismissive and says Sky is not interested in buying assets for solely strategic reasons.
He says: "What they assume is that we would use our digital pay channels to subsidise Prime, which is just not the case."
This week Sky revealed it had exceeded 690,000 subscribers, and Fellet acknowledges that the light touch - New Zealand is the least regulated broadcasting market in the world - has helped Sky's growth.
And if there are dark clouds on Sky's horizon, it is as the Government pumps more public cash into TVNZ and its channels on the new Freeview platform.
Fellet has left Sky's political lobbying efforts in the hands of his trusted colleague Tony O'Brien, Sky's director of communications and assiduous political lobbyist.
Over the past 12 months, Sky's influence in Wellington has substantially diminished, and Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey is said to be dismissive of Sky.
Citigroup estimates the chances of regulation being imposed on Sky are around 25 per cent.
But the decision forcing Telecom's unbundling is proof that the Government is no long wedded to an unregulated communications market.
The same light regulatory touch that allowed Sky to buy Prime would theoretically allow Fellet to bid for the much bigger TV3, if he were to ditch Prime. Sky has looked at TV3 in the past, and TV3 is up for sale now. Has Fellet looked this time?
"I've got enough things to worry about already," he says, adding that private equity money has pushed up the price for all New Zealand stocks. "Private equity does not have to worry about short-term effects such as the share price going down, and they can, a lot more, take a greater risk."
Fellet plays down the impact of the new Freeview digital platform owned by free-to-air channels. Will Freeview put a cap on Sky digital subscriptions ?
"It is an argument. The other argument, though - and this is what has happened with Freeview in Britain - was that it attracts people who would never in the past consider pay-for TV.
"Having now seen more channels, they have said, 'Hey this is great', and started paying for TV for the first time."
A competitor and senior player in the broadcasting scene described Fellet as quick witted, concise and someone who doesn't waste time.
"I think that is because he keeps management structure quite low and has a lot to do," the competitor says.
A fundamentalist Christian, Fellet lives with his wife and two children in Whitford and after 16 years regards himself as a New Zealander.
He arrived here in 1990. He visits his elderly parents in the US once a year and travels there for meetings with studios and investors.
But whether in Hollywood or here, he says the only time he can practise his old stand-up techniques is with his one-liners for staff Christmas parties.
John Fellet
Job: Chief executive, Sky Television.
Age: 53.
Education: Bachelor of Arts, accounting, at Arizona State University.
Previous roles: Prior to his 16-year tenure at Sky Television, he worked 14 years in the pay television sector, mostly for US pay giant Telecommunication Inc.
Family: Married with a son and a daughter.
Hobbies: Coaches baseball and is a big fan and financial backer of the New Zealand Breakers basketball team. Watches a lot of movies.
