Stuart Murphy Promoted To Director Of Sky Entertainment Channels

Sky has today announced that Stuart Murphy, currently Director of Sky 1 HD, and Director of Commissioning, will be promoted with immediate effect to Director, Sky Entertainment Channels.
Alongside his existing role, Murphy will assume responsibility for shaping the future strategy of the Entertainment portfolio channels: Sky Atlantic HD, Sky Arts HD and Sky Living HD as well as Sky 1 HD, which was recently named Channel of the Year. The Directors of each channel, Jane Johnson (Sky Living), Naomi Gibney (Sky Atlantic) and James Hunt (Sky Arts) will now report to Murphy.
Murphy will continue to report to Sophie Turner Laing, MD of Entertainment, News and Broadcast Operations, alongside Sky Movies, Sky News, Sky Creative, Broadcast Operations and Network Planning.
Murphy and his team across the Entertainment Portfolio will continue to bring more high-quality, exclusive content to customers, supported by Sky’s commitment to increase investment in home-grown programming to £600 million by 2014, an increase of more than 50% over three years. Forthcoming original British content includes David Attenborough’s 3D documentary Kingdom of Plants, and new drama and comedy such as Sinbad, Starlings, Hit and Miss and Playhouse Presents.
"Over the past three years, under Stuart’s leadership, we have seen Sky 1 become a true destination channel, offering our customers some of the finest drama, comedy and entertainment programmes on television at the moment," commented Sophie Turner Laing. "I have no doubt that in his new role, he’ll bring the same vision and drive to the rest of the portfolio, working with the team to look at the next steps for the rest of our - first class - entertainment channels.
"I’m properly excited about this opportunity and want to thank Sophie for her continued support," comments Stuart Murphy. "Getting Sky 1 HD to where we are today was a real team effort and I can't wait to work with Sophie, the channel heads, the commissioning heads and the indie community to look at how we take the entertainment channels to the next phase."
In addition to his channel responsibilities, James Hunt has become Director, Entertainment Production taking over from Barbara Gibbon who has joined Sky Creative as Director of Production and Operations.
(GK)