UKTV announces editorial restructure to realise grow ambition

6 June 2014 Controller Emma Tennant announces editorial restructure with increased remits for General Managers, Steve North and Adrian Wills

Director of Network Performance, Emma Boston, becomes third General Manager with inclusion of editorial for On Demand services in newly created non-linear remit

Controller, Emma Tennant has announced an editorial restructure of Britain's fastest growing broadcaster, UKTV, designed to boost the company's ongoing ratings success.

In the new structure, three General Managers will lead the network's portfolio of ten channel brands and On Demand services augmenting a19% growth in share of linear viewing year on year , and 560% growth of non-linear (VOD) viewing. All General Managers will report to Controller, Emma Tennant.

Steve North, General Manager for Dave and Gold gets a broader role in the new structure with the addition of Watch to his portfolio, making him responsible for three of the network's most high profile brands.

Under Steve North's leadership, Dave has grown to become the most watched non-PSB channel in the UK and a regular fixture of the CoolBrands list. Its unprecedented popularity has resulted in a host of awards from the Media Guardian Innovation Award, to 2014 Promax Channel of the Year.

Adrian Wills' role as General Manager will also build to incorporate crime drama channel, Alibi as well as the successful free to air channels, Drama and Yesterday. Adrian Wills is credited with the multi-award winning launch of Drama in 2013, launching ahead of projections and single-handedly growing the channel's share of commercial impacts (SOCI) to 1.3% in under a year, as well as leading Britain's most watched factual channel, Yesterday.

Emma Boston, Director of Network Performance will be promoted to General Manager in the reshuffle, with responsibility for UKTV's On Demand services - a newly created remit - as well as overseeing free to air channel Really, which has seen growth of 23% SOCI, year on year, plus popular subscription channels Eden, Good Food and Home.

Emma Tennant, Controller, UKTV said,

The reason that UKTV continually bucks the market is because it can be fleet of foot and adaptable to changing market conditions. This new structure is the next stage of our ambitious growth plan and I know that in Steve North, Adrian Wills and Emma Boston I have the perfect leadership team to sustain UKTV's record growth across linear and non-linear.

Steve Hornsey, General Manager overseeing Watch and Alibi will leave UKTV after a period of eight successful years as his role becomes redundant.

UKTV has sustained a three-year period of uninterrupted viewership acceleration with the network retaining its status as fastest growing broadcaster in Britain throughout 2014, according to BARB data.

END corporate.uktv.co.uk / press.uktv.co.uk / @uktv_press

About UKTV UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches over 42 million viewers per month.

UKTVs ten imaginative channel brands - Watch, Dave, Gold, Alibi, Eden, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home and Good Food - include the most watched non-PSB channel, the most watched channel in the Factual genre and the most watched channels in the Lifestyle genre (Pay and Free). The company's most recent financial results showed a record-breaking year-end revenue of £262m, and operating profit at £71m.

UKTV has a truly innovative model, curating brand-defining commissions, high-profile acquisitions and the very best of BBC and Channel 4 content, and embracing technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT TV, TalkTalk, YouView, plus direct On Demand digital services. The network distributes its highly valued programmes to 200 territories around the world and supplies Sky with more hours of HD content than anyone else.

Now celebrating its 21st year at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the only British broadcaster to be recognised by Best Companies.

LINK:	http://corporate.uktv.co.uk/news/article/uktv-announces-editorial-rest...
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