UK broadcaster 5’s long-serving content chief Ben Frow to exit after 14 years

Ben Frow took to the ETVF stage in a ‘Make Paramount great again’ cap

Ben Frow, who has led commissioning at Paramount-owned UK terrestrial 5 for the past 14 years, is leaving.

The news was shared with staff at the network today by Reemah Sakaan, who was appointed president of the public service broadcaster at the start of the year.

Frow will continue in his current role until next summer and leave 5 completely by the end of 2027.

In the memo, Frow said: “I have always said that this was the best job in the world, and I’ve absolutely loved my time at 5. But after 14 years where I’ve achieved everything I wanted to and more, it seems like the right time to hand over and give someone else a go. This isn’t a goodbye just yet and I’ll be around to support Reemah and the team with a smooth transition.”

Despite Sakaan’s appointment over Frow’s head, and the protracted merger of parent Paramount with Warner Bros Discovery to form the new Skydance group, Frow has been in bullish mood of late about the future of the channel and his role within it.

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August while wearing a ‘Make Paramount great again’ baseball cap, he told delegates Skydance boss David Ellison was “very passionate about content, creativity, movies and television. I do think we’re in good hands.”

He added: “We now have someone that really does believe in investing in us and the importance of public service broadcasting in the UK. I know for a fact we’ve got investment for the next three years, which will enable us to make more programmes, continue to be creative and evolve the channel, which is fantastic.”

Describing Ellison as “very shy, retiring,” Frow continued: “I like the fact he’s incredibly unassuming; quite gentle, as opposed to what you might think. He was very impressive.”

Frow also highlighted the role of Sakaan, whom he claimed to have told he would resign if costly reputational pieces like drama strand Play For The Day were cut from his schedule.

Less than two months on from that appearance, Frow is now leaving the broadcaster. Saakan described working with him as an “utter joy” and praised his “exceptional creative skills, obsession with our audience and fiery competitive spirit” in the memo, which was first reported by Deadline.

It’s not the first time the maverick exec has signalled an end to his time at 5. Speaking at Edinburgh in 2023, he claimed to have handed in his notice the year before citing burnout before having a change of heart.

Frow is one of the longest serving and most popular execs in the UK business. BBC creative lead Kate Phillips was the latest exec to praise his impact at the often ridiculed 5, saying producers should be paying the same attention to his channel as they do to chasing big commissions from the likes of Netflix.

Speaking at Edinburgh, Phillips said: “I’m a big 5 fan; I don’t think 5 gets anywhere near enough credit. I thought this room should have been much fuller for Ben Frow’s session. Yes, what Netflix are doing is great, you’ve got all these streamers, but [for indies] Ben’s got a lot of opportunity there, he’s smart and Paramount are funding 5 well now.”

Having controversially ditched the channel’s costly reboot of Channel 4’s summer reality juggernaut Big Brother in 2018, he spent the money and schedule it freed up reinventing the then Channel 5.

It turned from being a home for US repeats and the oft-misquoted “films, football and fucking” of Dawn Airey and Richard Desmond’s respective reigns, into a channel unashamedly targeting the north of Brexit Britain with original programming that spoke to a non-London audience.

He commissioned low-budget factual like The Yorkshire Vet and moved into scripted with series like the All Creatures Great & Small reboot, and famously described the channel’s target audience as a mother and daughter watching together in Middlesbrough.

As a passionate advocate of public service broadcasting, under his guidance the channel’s head of factual, Guy Davies, was also able to produce reputational pieces and attract big names like Michael Palin to the network on challenging budgets.

The about-face in strategy and the ratings it achieved saw it named the UK’s Channel of the Year in 2018.