So in England he played a major role in building and launching Sky Television, Fox Sports and Eurosports. Murdoch saw in Hill a business talent that had been missed in Australia. In 1988, David Hill decided he'd done all he could in Australia, and headed to London, switching allegiance to another demanding boss, Rupert Murdoch.įrom then on, it's a matter of what he didn't achieve. There was also Wide World of Sports - terrific viewing on a Saturday afternoon as Ian Chappell and the late Mike Gibson introduced sports we'd never seen before. This ability to find ways of enhancing the on-air product and the enjoyment of fans would serve him well all around the world. Times have changed.Īmong many other innovations, David Hill's sports coverage continually kept viewers aware of the score, and the amount of time left to play. The lady concerned was a well-known actress, and knew her cricket, but her appointment didn't last long. Legend has it that Packer rang Hill and asked: 'Have you been in the cot with her yet? If you haven't, you're sillier than I thought'. Hill also proved he was well ahead of his time by introducing a female commentator and, back in the mid-80s, that was something of a no-no. The viewers loved it, and the unhappy batsmen learned to accept it. and then being ridiculed all the way off the ground. Everyone went for it 100%.Īnd that was certainly the case if the successful idea had been David's own! Daddles the duck was one of his ideas, and the pesky bird is still escorting batsmen from the ground after they've failed. Ideas would be tossed up at production meetings - good suggestions and not-so-good ones considered, but when Hill made a decision, that was it. After the shakiest of starts, WSC became a resounding success and, while Packer may have been the boss, David Hill was steering the ship, creating the on-air product.Īs deputy news director at Channel Nine in Sydney in the 80's when Hill was running Wide World of Sports, it was my privilege to watch him in action up close and often at a variety of broadcast events. jeez it was boring'.ĭavid Hill’s talent must have overcome that little obstacle - he was handed the task of launching Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. Problem was, he says, it was 'as boring as it gets. The cameraman recalls that Hill had been assigned as producer of a one-hour documentary on soccer star Johnny Warren. If you believe a very senior cameraman who worked with “Hilly” on one of his earlier Channel Nine tasks, it's a career that may never have got off the ground. The big question afterwards, still unanswered today, was: would Hill have done that if Kerry Packer hadn't sold the Nine Network to Alan Bond just a week earlier? But David Hill had already shown he could handle Australia's richest man, and he was about to embark on a television career that would make him perhaps more powerful - though not richer - than KP himself. It was pretty much the liveliest on-screen action in four months.

His creative mind must have being working overtime, because no sooner had American skipper Dennis Conner sailed Stars and Stripes to victory, than up on the screen came a very large lady, in full costume, Viking horns and all, singing a classic aria. 'When the fat lady sings,' was the standard reply.īut, unknown to most of his staff, Nine’s executive producer David Hill was working on a grand finale. 'When does this thing end?' was being asked more and more often.

Channel Nine had broadcast rights and the Wide World of Sports crew was getting weary. The elimination events had started in November 1986. It was late February 1987, and the marathon that was the America's Cup yachting regatta off the coast of Fremantle was coming to an end.

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