Sky adds FTA channels boss

BSkyB has made a pair of appointments within its entertainment team, including a new head for the UK pay-TV operator’s free-to-air digital channels.

Stephen Ladlow

Stephen Ladlow has been named director of gameshow network Challenge and Sky best-of channel Pick TV.

He has been with the company for a decade and was most recently sponsorship controller, in charge of entertainment account agreements with the likes of BlackBerry and Panasonic.

Ladlow now joins director of entertainment Stuart Murphy’s group of channel directors, which also includes Antonia Hurford-Jones; Sky Atlantic’s Elaine Pyke; and Sky Arts’ James Hunt. Murphy himself oversees generalist net Sky1.

The second appointment sees freelancer Barbara Lee joining head of entertainment Phil Edgar-Jones’ team as commissioning editor. She will work alongside Deborah Sargeant to greenlight content across Sky’s entire entertainment channels portfolio.

The move fills the gap left last month when Hurford-Jones moved up to head of Sky Living, replacing Jane Johnson on an interim basis.

Lee’s recent credits include executive producing BBC primetime Saturday night series Epic Win. She has also worked for the likes of Hat Trick Productions, Whizzkid Entertainment and Tiger Aspect, and was formerly head of development at Zeal Television.

The appointments come after Sky revealed it had invested £450m (US$705.5m) on original content this year, as part of its promise to invest £600m a year by 2014.

The News Corp-backed company has moved to further monetise that new content by acquiring vendor Parthenon Media to sell the shows on the international market.