Ex-global iPlayer MD resurfaces at Sky

Luke Bradley-Jones has joined UK satcaster BSkyB’s sales division following his departure from BBC Worldwide (BBCWW), C21 understands.

On Tuesday, it emerged Bradley-Jones had left his role as BBCWW’s MD of the global iPlayer and BBC.com at the end of last year. C21 can now reveal he has joined Sky’s sales and marketing division in an as yet undefined role.

It’s understood he began at the satcaster this week, charged with working on Sky’s existing television products and further developing Sky+, Sky+ HD, Anytime+, Sky Go and Sky 3D. He reports into Sky’s new MD of sales and marketing Stephen Van Rooyen.

The news comes after Van Rooyen replaced Andrea Zappia as divisional MD in August last year after the latter moved across to become CEO of sister satcaster Sky Italia. This could suggest Bradley-Jones takes on Van Rooyen’s former deputy MD position. Zappia’s move was triggered by Tom Mockridge’s switch to News International to replace Rebecca Brooks.

Bradley-Jones is the latest new face at Sky’s West London headquarters following the appointments of Phil Edgar Jones and Michele Kurland as heads of entertainment and factual entertainment, respectively.

Sky remains without a replacement for former principal architect Chris Bramley, who left to replace Anthony Rose at upcoming UK broadcaster-backed VoD platform YouView as chief technology officer.

Before joining Sky, Bradley-Jones’ spent five years at BBCWW, the BBC’s commercial arm, initially joining as head of strategy before rising to MD of BBC.com and the global iPlayer. Before then, he worked at media consultancy Spectrum Strategy Consultants (now Value Partners).

Since his departure from BBCWW, former UKTV programming chief Matthew Littleford has been in charge of the day-to-day running the global BBC iPlayer as general manager, reporting to the VoD service’s president Jana Bennett, who also leads worldwide channels.

Littleford this week appointed former BSkyB and Virgin Media executive Riccardo Donato as the global iPlayer’s first head of commercial and strategy, Derren Lawford as head of programming and scheduling and Paul Williamson as head of editorial operations. Between them, they will assume all of Bradley-Jones’ former responsibilities.

Sky confirmed the appointment but declined to comment further.