New Senior Line-up
ITV PLC
21 September 2005
21st September 2005
ITV announces new senior line-up to
position itself for growth in the digital age
ITV announced today that it is putting in place a new top team and structure to
position itself for growth in the digital age, effective immediately. This will
enable ITV to focus more closely on the needs of its viewers and advertisers.
ITV has successfully delivered the merger, built a thriving multi-channel
business and doubled its interim profits during the past two years. As ITV moves
into the next phase of its development it has three strategic objectives: to
build its broadcasting business; to grow its production businesses and to
develop new revenue streams.
In order to achieve this, the divisional structure has been replaced and a
number of new roles have been created including: Commercial Director; Director
of Television; Director of ITV Production and Director of ITV Worldwide. These
roles, together with those of the recently-appointed Jeff Henry as Director of
ITV Consumer and Clive Jones leading ITV Regions and News, will drive the
business forward.
Henry Staunton, Finance Director and Mick Desmond, CEO of ITV's Broadcasting
Division, will leave the Company. It is intended that Henry Staunton will step
down when a successor is appointed.
• Ian McCulloch becomes Commercial Director. All of ITV's sales and
marketing expertise will be brought together under his leadership. Ian is
currently COO of the Broadcasting division and one of the architects of ITV's
successful digital channels,
• Simon Shaps becomes Director of Television. Simon, currently CEO of
Granada, will assume overall responsibility for the commissioning and
scheduling of all ITV channels. Ian and Simon's teams will work together to
ensure that ITV delivers the most valuable audiences to advertisers and the
most attractive programming to viewers. News, as a critical component of
ITV's offering to viewers, will now be fully integrated into the channels
team. Clive Jones remains CEO of the ITV Regions and News Group and will
have additional responsibility for Sports production, Broadcast Resources and
Compliance. The regional MDs will continue to report into Clive.
• ITV's production arm, Granada, which currently produces much of ITV's
most successful programming, will be renamed ITV Production. The Granada
brand will be used for international and third party productions in the UK.
John Whiston, presently Director of Drama, Children's Arts and Features at
Granada, will become Acting Head.
• ITV Worldwide will be responsible for all international production and
third party sales. It will comprise Granada International, Granada Ventures
and Granada's international production businesses. William Medlicott, the
former COO of Carlton International and currently the Finance Director of
Granada, will become Acting Head until a permanent appointment is made
• Jeff Henry as Director of ITV Consumer will continue to be responsible
for exploiting opportunities outside of free-to-air advertising in mobile,
broadband, and other new media services. This team has already begun
delivering an exciting range of new consumer products and services such as
ITV mobile and ITV local.
ITV will now begin a search process for the new positions of Finance Director,
and Directors of ITV Production and TV Worldwide.
Charles Allen, CEO of ITV, said:
'ITV is now ready to move into its next phase of growth. Today's changes mean
that all parts of our business will now be able to work together more
effectively. The new structure will ensure that our primary focus is on the
needs of viewers and advertisers, both in the UK and internationally.'
'We have the right structure and the right people in key roles to drive the
business forward. I am confident that we will be able to attract the best
talent from within ITV or externally to the exciting new positions we have
created'.
Enquiries:
ITV Tel: 020 7620 1620
Brigitte Trafford
Jim Godfrey
Citigate Dewe Rogerson Tel: 020 7638 9571
Simon Rigby
Notes to Editors:
When ITV plc was formed in February 2004 it had three principal objectives: to
implement the merger successfully, deliver significant cost savings, and to
begin modernising the regulatory framework in which it operates. These have
been more than achieved. Operating profits have doubled in the last two years;
£120 million of cost savings have been delivered, ahead of both expectations and
schedule. Significant progress has also been made on with regulation.
ITV's licence payments will reduce from £215 million in 2004 to £4 million in
2012. It has raised more than £276 million to date from the sale of non-core
assets.
ITV has recently announced a range of new digital initiatives that strengthens
the Company's position in a digital environment, including Freesat (a joint
venture with the BBC), ITV mobile and ITV Local, the latter two both developed
by ITV's consumer division to help drive new revenue streams to the company.
BIOGRAPHIES
Simon Shaps has more than 25 years experience in the TV industry working across
all genres, producing every kind of programme from pre-school to high-end drama,
documentaries and current affairs, ambitious reality to lifestyle.
He started his career as a researcher and rose through the ranks to become
Director of Programmes at both LWT and Granada Television, he also ran Granada
International Factual and was Managing Director of Granada's Broadband division.
Following the restructure of Granada in 2001, Simon became Managing Director and
then Chief Executive of Granada. He is the current chair of the Cultural
Diversity Network and was chair of the Royal Television Society from 2002-2004.
He has been responsible for the largest and most successful commercial TV
producer in the UK creating more than 3,500 hours of original programming each
year and producing seven of the top 10 highest rating (non sport) programmes on
British television. Some of the programmes he has responsibility for include
Coronation Street, the Paul O'Grady show, I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Parkinson, Tonight with Trevor McDonald and
high-end dramas such as Bloody Sunday, Dirty Filthy Love and the factual drama
the Murder of Stephen Lawrence. Under Simon Granada has produced programmes for
every major UK channel including Channel 4's award-winning Sex Traffic and The
Deal in addition to David Starkey's Monarchy and the quiz show Countdown. For
the BBC, Granada produces University Challenge and What the Papers Say.
He also has responsibility for Granada's distribution business which represents
35,000 hours of programming from leading independent producers and Granada's own
production teams in 155 territories. Under his leadership, Granada International
has sold more than 25,000 hours of programming so far this year, including 1,240
to the US the world's most competitive TV market. He also created Granada
America, Germany and Australia which have all had massive hits on the leading
networks across a variety of genres.
Ian McCulloch joined LWT in 1980 in the sales division and rose to become
Operations Director for Granada Enterprises. In 2000 he became Commercial
Director of Granada Broadband looking at revenue opportunities in properties
such as ITV-F1.com, Liverpool.com and Arsenal.com. In 2001 he moved across to
Broadcasting as Director of Operations with responsibility for Granada's
investment in ITV. That role developed into Managing Director of Operations for
ITV Broadcasting. In 2005, he was promoted to COO of ITV Broadcasting.
John Whiston had been BBC Manchester's Head of Youth and Entertainment Features
for four years when he joined Yorkshire Tyne Tees in 1998 which had just been
taken over by Granada. In 2001 John became Director of Programmes for the whole
of Granada in the North, and for Coronation Street which in the last year has
delivered shares of greater than 60% on 45 occasions and is now watched by 1.4m
more people per week than when he took it over.
In 2002 John became Director of Drama, Children's, Arts and Features. He has
been responsible for all of Granada's drama output (more than 350 hours per
annum) which includes Coronation Street & Emmerdale, both of which are enjoying
huge critical acclaim and ratings success. During his time at Yorkshire he has
also overseen the most successful single dramas on ITV including the Emmy award
winning Lost For Words, The Innocent with Caroline Quentin, the hit comedy Booze
Cruise, the controversial drama documentary Shipman and the ever popular Touch
of Frost which has won innumerable awards in the past five years. He also looks
after series such as Poirot, Miss Marple, William & Mary, The Last Detective and
Blue Murder.
William Medlicott joined Carlton in 1994. He has played a key role in the
development of the Carlton International distribution business and became Chief
Operating Officer of the Carlton Content business in April 2002. He was
appointed Finance Director of Granada Production last year.
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