Sensis sale sees Telstra part ways with media boss

Telstra's media boss Rick Ellis will leave the company, following the completion of the sale of a majority stake of the company's marketing business Sensis to Platinum Equity.

Telstra signed off on the deal to sell 70 percent of the struggling Sensis business to the US private equity firm in January.

With the deal finalised, Telstra today said that Ellis, who joined Telstra in 2012, would leave the company, as the sale had significantly reduced his portfolio.

In his place, Telstra's chief marketing officer since 2010 Mark Buckman will step up his responsibility with the new title of group managing director for media and marketing. Buckman will have responsibility over Telstra's digital media, IPTV, and Pay TV divisions, reporting to Telstra retail group executive Gordon Ballantyne.

Mike Wright, Telstra's veteran executive director of networks, has also been promoted to group managing director for networks, reporting to Telstra's group executive operations manager Kate McKenzie.

Telstra CEO David Thodey said in a statement today that Ellis had overseen a period of consolidation for Telstra in its media portfolio, and thanked him for his time with the company.

"Rick has served Telstra well through an intense period of change. He was a key member of the Telstra leadership team and achieved major outcomes with our Foxtel working relationship and Sensis partnership with Platinum," he said in a statement.

It comes as today, Foxtel launches its Presto streaming video-on-demand service. The service was built in partnership with Telstra, which owns a 50 percent stake in Foxtel.