North and Watsham handed expanded remits

Thursday 13 October 2022 - UKTVs CEO, Marcus Arthur, has announced today that he is handing expanded remits to senior executives Steve North and Richard Watsham, increasing their responsibilities for channels and content across UKTV and BBC Studios.

North as Chief Programming Officer, UKTV and Global Director of Content Compliance, BBC Studios/UKTV, and Watsham as Chief Creative Officer, UKTV and Global Director of Acquisitions, BBC Studios/UKTV, will work in tandem, overseeing the editorial direction of the UKTV network and the content strategy across all of UKTVs channel brands. They will also lead the BBC Studios / UKTVs global compliance and acquisitions teams respectively.

Steve North, who currently oversees Dave, Gold, W and Yesterday as Genre General Manager for UKTVs Comedy & Entertainment channels, will take on responsibility for UKTVs full portfolio of channel brands, managing the editorial direction and programming for each. He will also continue to manage the combined BBC Studios and UKTV global compliance team, ensuring it is a centre of excellence for complying content on a range of BBC Studios and UKTV branded services internationally and in the UK.

UKTVs Director of Commissioning, Richard Watsham, has overseen UKTVs award-winning commissioning team for nine years and has been praised for spearheading UKTVs successful originations strategy. Under the restructure Watsham will oversee the content pipeline servicing UKTVs brands and, alongside his UKTV commissioning remit, he will assume responsibility for BBC Studios and UKTVs global acquisitions team, overseeing all content acquisition activity across BBC Studios Branded Services and UKTVs portfolio of channels.

Marcus Arthur said,

Steve and Richard are already invaluable members of UKTVs Executive Leadership Team, and Im delighted they are taking on these additional responsibilities. They both have incredible creative vision, alongside being highly strategic and business-minded, and in these new roles they will work closely together to help drive UKTV and BBC Studios towards further success.

Steve North said,

I am incredibly excited to be taking on this new role. We have an excellent editorial team at UKTV and Im looking forward to bringing everyone together to ensure we continue to lead the way with our editorial strategy and creativity. Our combined compliance team is full of highly experienced and talented people, and I will continue do all I can to support them and maintain their position as an international leader in compliance decision making.

Richard Watsham added,

Uniting the proven and award-winning experience that already exists in both UKTVs commissioning team and the UKTV/BBC Studios global acquisitions team is a huge opportunity. Im passionate about increasing the quality of our content and strengthening our partnerships to ensure that we continue to serve our growing share of the commercial market, but also recruit new viewers to our linear and VOD platforms globally. For UKTV, taking a holistic approach to content and playing at all points of the acquisition/origination spectrum will be vital to our continued success. I cant wait to get started.

The news follows the decision by long-serving executive Adrian Wills to step down from his role as General Manager of Global Acquisitions for BBC Studios, and Drama & Lifestyle for UKTV. Wills has been at UKTV for over 25 years and is credited with overseeing the successful launch of Drama in 2013, which has achieved phenomenal growth to become the number one non-PSB owned channel in Britain. In addition to Drama, Wills also launched the channels that became Alibi and Yesterday, as well as Eden, and he has led UKTVs acquisitions department since 2017, becoming General Manager of Global Acquisitions for BBC Studios and UKTV in 2020.

UKTV is currently enjoying a strong period of growth with record Share of Commercial Impacts and network share, plus awards success with break out hit Big Zuus Big Eats nominated for and winning a plethora of industry awards, including two BAFTAs earlier this year. UKTVs original content is also performing well with key titles such as Meet the Richardsons, Mel Giedroyc: Unforgiveable, Outsiders and Question Team all returning for new series on Dave this autumn and early next year. In addition, viewers can look forward to brand new drama The Diplomat, produced by World Productions, and the return of Annika, from Black Camel Pictures, on Alibi in 2023.

North and Watsham assume their new responsibilities from the beginning of November.

-END-

For further information please contact:

Kerry Goode, Director of Communications, UKTV

Rebecca Ferris, Corporate Communications Manager, UKTV

About UKTV

UKTV has been at the forefront of branded television for over 25 years, entertaining the nation with programmes they love. Its leading brands - Dave, Gold, W, Drama, Alibi, Eden and Yesterday - span comedy, entertainment, natural history, factual and drama, and are delivered to audiences through UKTV Play, Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat and Amazon Fire. The broadcaster is a significant investor in British creativity and is committed to working with new and established writers, directors and programme-makers.

UKTV is part of BBC Studios, the UKs most-awarded production company, a world-class distributor with international branded services, and a commercial subsidiary of the worlds leading public service broadcaster, the BBC.

UKTV Twitter: https://twitter.com/UKTV

UKTV Corporate Website: https://corporate.uktv.co.uk/

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