UKTV has announced that Richard Watsham, Chief Creative Officer at UKTV and Global Director of Acquisitions for BBC Studios/UKTV, has decided to step down from his roles in September this year following a 14-year tenure in the business.
Watsham joined UKTV as a Commissioning Editor in 2011 before being elevated to serve nine years as Director of Commissioning during which time he built and led UKTV’s commissioning team, spearheading its originations strategy.
He was appointed to his current roles in November 2022 to oversee the content pipeline across UKTV’s portfolio of brands and lead content acquisition activity for BBC Studios’ global branded services.
Under his creative leadership, UKTV has added to its original lifestyle content into commissioning across multiple genres including documentary, factual entertainment, comedy entertainment, scripted comedy and now its largest ever drama slate. During this period, the network has almost tripled its commissioning spend with more than three times the volume of original programming hours.
Hits in entertainment include Taskmaster which Watsham helped develop and was the original commissioner of, Dynamo: Magician Impossible, BAFTA-winning Big Zuu’s Big Eats and the last performance of the Pythons in Monty Python Live (Mostly); Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, Bangers and Cash and Expedition with Steve Backshall in factual entertainment; and Traces, Annika, The Marlow Murder Club and the recent reimagining of Bergerac in drama.
His acquisitions team, led by Melanie Rumani, who tragically passed away two weeks ago, have played a huge part in filling UKTV’s VOD service U with almost 10,000 hours of content from classic British archive to glossy, US studio premieres.
Watsham is also the Chair of Action for Freelancers, the pan-industry collaboration set up to address the issues facing the TV freelance community. He is also Chair of the Creative Diversity Network and he will continue in both roles. He ensured that UKTV was the first broadcaster to mandate Albert certification on its original programming, the first broadcaster to track climate content in its productions, and has helped pioneer the shift from carbon offsetting to carbon reduction schemes in drama.
Marcus Arthur, CEO, UKTV, said: “Richard’s contribution to UKTV has been immense. His creative vision and leadership have transformed the reputation and scope of UKTV’s content, delivering hits that have delighted and grown our audiences. Alongside this, he has ensured that UKTV has been an advocate for positive change in the industry, driving initiatives in diversity, inclusion and sustainability. We’re incredibly grateful for everything he’s done for the team and the business, and while we understand his decision to seek a new challenge, he will be sorely missed.”
Richard Watsham said: “It is always a difficult decision to leave somewhere you love but there are still so many challenges to take on and opportunities to explore that the time is right. Really, the difficulty comes down to the people though. Our resources are leaner compared to some of our competitors, but we have punched above our weight over and over again due to the passion and brilliant expertise of my colleagues at UKTV. They are second to none in the British TV industry; underestimate them at your peril! I will miss them daily, but I have no doubt our paths will cross again in the future.”
Jon Creamer
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