Richard Watsham to depart UK multichannel broadcaster UKTV after 14 years

Richard Watsham, chief creative officer at multichannel broadcaster UKTV and global director of acquisitions for BBC Studios/UKTV, is to step down from his roles in September.

Richard Watsham

The senior executive is departing after a 14-year tenure in the business, to “explore new opportunities.”

Watsham joined UKTV as a commissioning editor in 2011 before being elevated to the post of director of commissioning. In that role, he built and led the broadcaster’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.

Under his creative leadership, UKTV has pivoted from being an originator of lifestyle content into greenlighting programming across multiple genres such as documentary, factual entertainment, comedy entertainment, scripted comedy and its largest ever drama slate.

During that period, the network has almost tripled its commissioning spend with more than three times the volume of original programming hours.

Watsham was the original commissioner for hit comedy challenge format Taskmaster, which he helped develop, with other series orders including the recent Bergerac detective drama reboot, Dynamo: Magician Impossible and Big Zuu’s Big Eats.

He also worked alongside Melanie Rumani, head of global acquisitions, who tragically passed away in mid-June.

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.”