Richard Watsham, Chief Creative Officer at UKTV and Global Director of Acquisitions for BBC Studios/UKTV, is stepping down from his roles in September after a 14-year tenure in the business.
Watsham joined UKTV as a Commissioning Editor in 2011 before being promoted to Director of Commissioning. For nine years, he led UKTV’s commissioning team, spearheading its originations strategy.
He was appointed to his current roles in November 2022 to oversee the content pipeline across UKTV’s portfolio of brands and lead content acquisition activity for BBC Studios’ global branded services.
During his time at the broadcaster, UKTV has moved from being an originator of lifestyle content into commissioning across genres including documentary, factual entertainment, comedy entertainment, scripted comedy and drama. The network has almost tripled its commissioning spend in that time.
Credits include Taskmaster, Dynamo: Magician Impossible, Big Zuu’s Big Eats, Monty Python Live (Mostly); Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, Bangers and Cash and Expedition with Steve Backshall; and Traces, Annika, The Marlow Murder Club and Bergerac.
Watsham is also the Chair of Action for Freelancers, the pan-industry collaboration set up to address the issues facing the TV freelance community, and Chair of diversity organisation the Creative Diversity Network. He will continue in both roles.
Watsham also ensured that UKTV was the first broadcaster to mandate Albert certification on its original programming.
UKTV’s brands include U&Dave, U&DRAMA, U&W, U&YESTERDAY, U&eden, U&GOLD and U&alibi.
The broadcaster is part of BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary of the world's leading public service broadcaster, the BBC.
Marcus Arthur, CEO, UKTV, said: “Richard’s contribution to UKTV has been immense. His creative vision and leadership have transformed the reputation and scope of UKTV’s content, delivering hits that have delighted and grown our audiences. Alongside this, he has ensured that UKTV has been an advocate for positive change in the industry, driving initiatives in diversity, inclusion and sustainability. We’re incredibly grateful for everything he’s done for the team and the business, and while we understand his decision to seek a new challenge, he will be sorely missed.”
Watsham said: “It is always a difficult decision to leave somewhere you love but there are still so many challenges to take on and opportunities to explore that the time is right. Really, the difficulty comes down to the people though. Our resources are leaner compared to some of our competitors, but we have punched above our weight over and over again due to the passion and brilliant expertise of my colleagues at UKTV. They are second to none in the British TV industry; underestimate them at your peril! I will miss them daily, but I have no doubt our paths will cross again in the future.”
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