UKTV appoints Gare Barker as Head of Marketing for its entertainment channels

13 February 2015 Award-winning broadcaster UKTV today announced the appointment of Gareth Barker as Head of Entertainment Marketing.

Charged with building on UKTVs record-breaking viewer growth, Barker assumes responsibility for all branding and marketing activity for Dave, Watch, and Gold, including all digital and social media activity across the channels platforms.

The broadcaster looks ahead to a year of bold programme launches, having committed a record investment in commissioning new shows for its channels.

Barker joins from Procter & Gamble, where he was responsible for marketing their Oral Care brands across northern Europe. He brings with him a decade of award-winning marketing experience, gained in roles including marketing for P&Gs eCommerce channel in Europe, where he helped to overhaul the regions web strategy and establish P&Gs best practise approach for digital marketing.

UKTVs Marketing Director, Simon Michaelides said,

UKTV has just delivered its fourth consecutive year of record growth. Maintaining that trajectory requires us to constantly challenge the status quo and embrace new thinking. Looking outside of the TV industry for high calibre marketers such as Gareth enables us to inject a rich set of incremental skills and experience which complement our existing strengths.

He continued, Gareth is a fantastic addition to the team. His background in commercial, consumer and brand marketing, combined with his ability to take an analytical and insight-based approach, perfectly complement the already exceptional content marketing skills in the department. We are delighted to welcome him, and look forward to his contribution to the next chapter of UKTVs growth.

Barker added,

Im delighted to have joined UKTV at such an exciting time for the business. This is a fantastic opportunity to work on a portfolio of genre-defining channels. UKTV is industry-leading in its approach to channel branding, and having seen some of the plans for 2015, Im extremely excited to get stuck in.

In his time at P&G, Barker worked in Shopper Marketing roles with Boots and Sainsburys, as well in Marketing Operations roles across a wide portfolio of brands ranging from Gillette and Shockwaves, to Pampers and Braun. Career highlights include launching the worlds first Bluetooth-connected electric toothbrush, and brokering a multi-brand sponsorship deal that raised over £1m for Comic Relief.

Gareth joined UKTV in January. He reports to Steve North, General Manager of UKTVs Entertainment Channels.

UKTV recently announced it had achieved its highest ever full-year audience share, and had grown its share of the British TV advertising market to 9%. Upcoming 2015 highlights for UKTVs portfolio of channels include brand new commissions Hoff the Record, Undercover and Taskmaster on Dave, Singing in the Rainforest and Worlds Most Talented on Watch and Bob Monkhouse: The Million Joke Man on Gold.

END For more information, please contact: Lara Feinstein, Corporate Communications Coordinator

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

UKTVs eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, Watch, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food - include the most popular non-PSB channel in the UK and account for 9% of the British commercial TV market. The companys most recent financial results showed record-breaking year-end revenue of £278m, and EBITDA of £67.4m. It invested a record £125m in programming and related launches last year, and is becoming an increasingly significant investor in UK creativity.

UKTV has a truly innovative model, curating brand-defining commissions, high-profile acquisitions and the very best of BBC, alongside programmes originally shown on ITV and Channel 4. The network embraces technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.

Now celebrating its 22nd 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 television broadcaster to be recognised by Best Companies.

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

LINK:	http://corporate.uktv.co.uk/news/article/uktv-appoints-gareth-barker-h...
	See more stories from uktv

Most recent headlines