UKTV names Justine Bower Group Publicity Manager

Justine Bower

Multi-award winning media company UKTV has appointed Justine Bower in the new role of Group Publicity Manager, reporting to Director of Communications, Zoë Clapp, as part of a wider internal restructure.

Justine will oversee publicity for a portfolio of channel brands including Dave, Watch, Really, Eden and Home working alongside fellow Group Publicity Manager, Nicola Rowley who is responsible for Gold, Drama, Alibi, Good Food and Yesterday.

Justine joins UKTV from public service broadcaster Channel 4 where she was Publicity Manager for factual programming, including documentaries and arts. Justine joined Channel 4 in June 2007 and has overseen the publicity for a string of high-profile programmes including Make Bradford British, FGM campaigning film The Cruel Cut, Sex Box and the Channel's controversial Ramadan season.

Justine's appointment comes at a time when UKTV is expanding its communications department to service its increasingly popular channel brands and VOD services. The media company has also recently announced it is recruiting for a Publicity Producer to join the team and create bespoke content to support communications activity.

Zoë Clapp, Director of Communications at UKTV, said

'Justine has a brilliant sense of the imaginative and audacious: two absolutely vital attributes for UKTV's consumer campaigns.'

'She will lead the publicity remit for two of the UK's noisiest media brands - Dave, the most watched non PSB channel and Watch, UKTV's flagship entertainment brand in Pay - a job at which she's sure to excel. Justine's also joining the team during an exciting period of expansion and will play a key role in the future development of UKTV's communications strategy.'

Justine Bower, Group Publicity Manager, UKTV said:

'I am really excited to be joining UKTV a leading media company in what is a very competitive field. The company is experiencing rapid growth and the channels have built incredibly strong identities. UKTV has a fantastic reputation for creative and risk-taking PR stunts and launches and I'm looking forward to building on the amazing work the team have been doing.'

Prior to joining Channel 4 over six years ago, Justine worked for CNN International as PR Manager. While at CNN she managed publicity for breaking news stories, on air talent, original programming as well as commercial and consumer product launches across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including heading up external communications for CNN International's rebrand.

Justine began her career in agencies, working on technology and dotcom clients, including IT consultancy Logica and online bank smile.co.uk for QBO (now owned by Bell Pottinger). In 2002 she moved in-house at Sky, publicising major breaking news stories for Sky News, including the Iraq War and the 7/7 bombings.

Justine will take up her new post in March, working alongside fellow Group Publicity Manager Nicola Rowley, who joined UKTV in 2010 from Taylor Herring. Prior to this Nicola was a producer and reporter with 15 years experience, predominantly working at the BBC.

End

Kerry Parker, Senior Corporate Communications Manager

Zoe Clapp, UKTV Director of Communications

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

Notes to Editors

UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches over 42 million viewers per month. UKTV¹s 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 Vision, 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.