Discovery’s TLC grabs UKTV exec

Discovery Networks International (DNI) has tapped a UKTV exec to oversee its fledgling female-skewing entertainment channel TLC, which launched in the UK and Ireland last year.

Clare Laycock becomes head of channel at TLC and takes over from Jennifer Burgos, who was brought in on an interim basis to oversee the network’s launch in April last year. She has now left the company.

Laycock, who had previously worked for Discovery for 14 years until 2006, will lead the strategic development of TLC, which Discovery claims has become the ninth most-popular pay TV entertainment channel for women in the UK.

She was most recently general manager and channel head of UKTV’s networks Really, Home and Good Food. During her tenure, Laycock led the rebrand of Really from pay TV lifestyle channel to a free-to-air entertainment brand. She had been at UKTV for six years.

Susanna Dinnage, Discovery Networks UK & Ireland’s exec VP and MD, said Laycock’s experience of building entertainment channel brands would help the network “focus further on building TLC at the heart of the television landscape.”

Laycock, who also worked for BBC Learning before joining UKTV in 2008, had previously been VP and channel director at Discovery Home & Health and Discovery Kids during her previous spell at the company.

DNI launched TLC in the UK and Ireland with a mixture of hit US series and original UK content including reality series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Breaking Amish and Oprah’s Next Chapter, from OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.

The launch had long been anticipated following an aggressive roll-out of TLC across 180 territories during 2012.