Shine TV co-MDs exit in UK rejig

The co-MDs of Shine Group-owned prodco Shine TV have left the company amid a UK restructure that sees expanded roles for the CEOs of Princess Productions and Kudos.

Karen Smith and Jamie Munro, who have jointly run MasterChef producer Shine TV since 2008, have stepped down with immediate effect.

Concurrently, Princess’s Henrietta Conrad and Kudos Film & TV’s Jane Featherstone have assumed control for Shine’s UK business as joint chairmen. They will remain in their current chief exec roles, with Conrad also now CEO of Shine TV. Smith and Munro’s co-MD role will not be filled.

Another Shine-owned indie, Dragonfly, will now report into Featherstone, who will also continue to oversee comedy and drama at Brown Eyed Boy and Lovely Day.

Moving Shine’s six UK indies under the joint leadership of Featherstone and Conrad will give them better opportunity to collaborate and provided “greater clarity of focus for each” prodco, said Shine.

Shine TV will now focus closer on factual, factual entertainment and features, with Kelly Lamb-Webb moving across from Princess to become creative director. She will take Princess’s series such in those genres, including Channel 5’s Eddie Stobart: Trucks & Trailers, with her.

Princess will now focus on entertainment, comedy entertainment and daytime programming, with former BSkyB exec Duncan Gray remaining as creative director. Shine TV’s entertainment series such as BBC1’s The Magicians will transfer across.

Shine chairman and CEO Elisabeth Murdoch said the restructure would promote “centres of excellence,” provide “clarity” for its UK indies’ partners, as well as increasing production opportunities.

“Shine is a collection of companies that believe passionately that we are better when working closer together. This new structure allows us to live by this principle,” she added.

Murdoch said she respected Smith and Munro’s decision to leave Shine, while also adding Featherstone and Conrad’s new roles would be “of great benefit.”

A spokesman said the move would not lead to any redundancies.

Smith and Featherstone stepped into their roles in 2008, with the former moving up from a director of programmes role and the latter joining from Tiger Aspect, where he was commercial director.