Former ITV, C5 and Sky factual exec Andrew O’Connell has been appointed as Vice President of Development and Production at Discovery Channel US.
O’Connell will officially join the network on July 11, based in the United Kingdom, and report directly to Denise Contis, Executive Vice President of Production and Development for Discovery.
In this new role, O’Connell’s role will be to work with the UK production community to generate factual format hits for the US network. He will also partner with Discovery Network International’s Development and Production team.
“Andrew brings an incredible depth of experience and expertise that is a perfect fit for Discovery,” Contis said. "He has developed strong relationships across the United Kingdom and worked on a wide range of successful programs. I’m incredibly excited to have him part of the team.”
O’Connell joins Discovery from ITV where he was responsible for factual programming since June 2014 including Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest Airport, Sugar Free Farm, Rookies, Britain’s Favourite Dogs and Life At The Extreme.
Prior to ITV, he spent four years at Channel 5 as Head of News, Current Affairs and Factual and commissioned series including Chris Tarrant’s Extreme Railways, Trauma Doctors, World’s Biggest Pets and Royal Navy: Caribbean Patrol.
During his tenure at Sky 1 from 2005- 2009, he was responsible for the award-winning Ross Kemp on Gangs and Ross Kemp in Afghanistan series.
Staff Reporter
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