Steve North, Richard Watsham remits expand in BBC Studios/UKTV restructure

UKTV CEO Marcus Arthur has expanded the remits of senior executives Steve North and Richard Watsham, increasing their responsibilities for channels and content across UKTV and BBC Studios.

Richard Watsham

North becomes chief programming officer for UKTV and global director of content compliance for BBC Studios/UKTV, having previously overseen Dave, Gold, W and Yesterday as genre general manager for UKTV’s comedy and entertainment channels.

UKTV’s director of commissioning Watsham becomes chief creative officer at UKTV and global director of acquisitions for BBC Studios/UKTV.

The news follows the decision by long-serving executive Adrian Wills to step down from his role as general manager of global acquisitions for BBC Studios and drama and lifestyle for UKTV.

Wills has been at UKTV for over 25 years and is credited with overseeing the successful launch of Drama in 2013 and the channels that became Alibi and Yesterday, as well as Eden. He has led UKTV’s acquisitions department since 2017, becoming general manager of global acquisitions for BBC Studios and UKTV in 2020.

UKTV’s original content includes titles such as Meet the Richardsons, Mel Giedroyc: Unforgiveable, Outsiders and Question Team, The Diplomat and Annika.

Steve North

North and Watsham assume their new responsibilities from the beginning of November. The two will work in tandem, overseeing the editorial direction of the UKTV network and the content strategy across all of UKTV’s channel brands. They will also lead the BBC Studios/UKTV global compliance and acquisitions teams respectively.

North will take on responsibility for UKTV’s full portfolio of channel brands, managing the editorial direction and programming for each. He will also continue to manage the combined BBC Studios and UKTV global compliance team.

Watsham has overseen UKTV’s commissioning team for nine years, leading a push into originals. Under the restructure, Watsham will handle the content pipeline serving UKTV’s brands and, alongside his UKTV commissioning remit, will assume responsibility for BBC Studios and UKTV’s global acquisitions team, responsible for all content acquisition activity across BBC Studios’ branded services and UKTV’s portfolio of channels.