26 February 2015
Britain's fastest growing broadcaster UKTV has appointed Sinead Greenaway as Director of Operations and Technology - the company's next step in creating its gold standard infrastructure.
Greenaway, who was previously CEO of The Studios at MediaCityUK (now Dock10) and Operations and IT Director for Virgin Media Television, will become the business owner for both technology and all operational activities when she joins the company next month. She will report to UKTV's Chief Financial and Operations officer Jan Gooze-Zijl.
With digital innovation at UKTV's core, the new role requires Greenaway to drive a culture of operational excellence that allows the company to innovate at pace on technology, and ultimately drive viewing and revenue. She is charged with presenting outstanding levels of accuracy and delivery, responsiveness to the editorial and commercial needs of the business and effective cost control.
The role is one of the new positions created as part of the expansion of UKTV's Technology and Operations teams, which the broadcaster announced in November after it enjoyed a period of unprecedented growth. The company reported it had achieved its most successful 12 month period in history, securing a 9% share of British commercial viewing, significantly outperforming the market. The expansion also follows the company's move in July to its bespoke new office space in West London - a three-floor collaborative work environment centred on innovation, including sociable and flexible work spaces with all new, mobile working technology.
Greenaway joins from International talent and consultancy business The Lighthouse Company where as Managing Director she was instrumental in building and developing board level teams across the media and technology spectrum. Prior to that she was the Chief Executive of The Studios at MediaCityUK (now Dock10) where she successfully launched the business, and built and led the teams delivering production and technology services to both the BBC and other independent production companies. In her time at MediaCityUK, Greenaway's team successfully produced hundreds of iconic shows including Match of the Day, Sports Personality of the Year, Blue Peter, A Question of Sport and Dragons Den. Prior to that she achieved a great deal during her five years as Operations Director at Virgin Media Television including the launches of numerous channels, online players and most notably for becoming the first end-to-end digital broadcaster in the UK.
UKTV's Gooze-Zijl said,
Sinead has a huge amount of business, technical and operational experience in media so she is ideally placed to implement our strategic objectives, continue our strong growth trajectory and build UKTV's reputation for innovative and commercial leadership. I am confident she will fulfil her role of ensuring technical excellence for UKTV and I am delighted to be welcoming her to the company.
Greenaway added,
I am thrilled to be joining UKTV at such an exciting time for the business. We plan to substantially increase both the amount of content we deliver to our audiences and the number of platforms through which we engage with them and this growth will be enabled by harnessing world class technology. I am excited to be working with such a dynamic team to build on a culture of innovation and operational excellence and genuinely can't wait to get going.
In its recent end-of-year report, UKTV revealed it enjoyed its highest ever full-year audience share, an increase of 8.5% vs 2013 according to BARB data, and recorded its highest ever year-end revenue of £278m and EBITDA of £67.4m Last year the broadcaster launched its brand new on demand TV service UKTV Play, which it has successfully rolled out on PC, iOS, Android, YouView and Virgin On Demand over the last seven months.
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About UKTV
UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches over 42 million viewers every month.
UKTV's 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 company's 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.