KAREN BIELESKI
Channel Manager, Prime Television

Karen BieleskiKaren Bieleski's first job in television was in TVNZ’s programme sponsorship department, and her second was as Executive Assistant for then-Chief Executive Officer of TVNZ, Brent Harman.

However Karen’s real enthusiasm was for programming and she eventually took the role of Assistant Programmer for TV ONE in 1995.  A variety of programming roles across both TV ONE and TV 2 followed until in 1997 Karen became General Manager of Programming TV ONE, a position she held very successfully until the programming department was restructured in July 2004.  In 2005 she rejoined TVNZ as the programming consultant on its Freeview project. 

In December 2005 she joined Sky, with her position as Channel Manager Prime Television being formalised when Sky took Prime over in February 2006.  In the last six months Prime has reversed declining audience share trends and is currently achieving some of its highest ever ratings.

Karen has a MA with First Class Honours from Auckland University , majoring in English and minoring in French, and is a regular guest lecturer at the Christchurch School of Broadcasting.  She is fond of books, coffee, music, her godchildren and Newfoundland dogs.  She thinks everyone should know the difference between ‘infer’ and ‘imply’.

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