Â鶹Éç

Press Releases Peter Salmon has been appointed Director, Â鶹Éç North

Category: Â鶹Éç
Date: 09.12.2008
Printable version

Peter Salmon has been appointed Director, Â鶹Éç North. He is currently Â鶹Éç Vision's Chief Creative Officer, responsible for the Corporation's new in-house multimedia broadcasting and production centre in the division, and takes up his new position in mid-2009.

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He will join the Â鶹Éç's Executive Board in 2010 as the Â鶹Éç's new home in Salford Quays nears completion.

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Peter, who will be based in Salford Quays, will lead the development of the world's most advanced broadcasting centre.

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This will involve the largest move of staff and departments out of London in the Â鶹Éç's history. On completion the centre will house 2,500 staff, with approximately 1,500 jobs moving there from London.

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In his new role he will be directly responsible for Â鶹Éç Sport, and all its activities; the radio networks Â鶹Éç Radio 5 Live and 5ÌýLive Sports Extra; and Â鶹Éç Children's, including programme-making, commissioning and broadcasting of its CÂ鶹Éç and CBeebies channels.

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The Director, Â鶹Éç North, will hold and be accountable for the service licences, granted by the Â鶹Éç Trust, for Â鶹Éç Radio 5 Live, 5ÌýLive Sports Extra, and the CÂ鶹Éç and CBeebies channels.

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The Controller, Â鶹Éç Radio 5 Live and the Controller, Â鶹Éç Children's will retain a close working relationship with the Directors of Â鶹Éç Audio & Music and Â鶹Éç Vision respectively and will continue to be members of their senior management teams.

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Peter will have managerial oversight of Â鶹Éç Learning and the significant number of Future Media & Technology staff who will move to the new centre from London, along with a strong regional broadcasting operation and the network production departments from the Â鶹Éç's current Manchester base (factual, religion, entertainment, drama, comedy, current affairs and music, including the Â鶹Éç Philharmonic Orchestra).

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However, final budgetary and editorial control of these areas will rest with existing Â鶹Éç Groups as now.

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The Â鶹Éç's operations are currently based in Oxford Road, Manchester, but they will move a few miles to the new Salford Quays base as part of a major development called MediaCityUK from 2011.

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Peter will continue in his current role in charge of in-house programme-making until mid-2009, though he will begin to take up some of his new responsibilities from January 2009, initially working to Caroline Thomson, the Â鶹Éç's Chief Operating Officer, who is currently the executive sponsor of the Salford Quays project.

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In 2010 Salmon will join the Â鶹Éç's Executive Board and report directly to the Director-General, Mark Thompson.

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Announcing the appointment, Mark Thompson said: "The appointment of a Director to lead the move to Salford and its subsequent development is a huge step along the path to realising the Â鶹Éç's ambition to produce half of its output outside of London by 2016.

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"I cannot think of anyone better qualified than Peter to lead this bold venture which I believe will have significant impact across the Â鶹Éç as new ways of working and using technology are developed in practice.

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"He has been an outstanding programme-maker and editorial leader and his experience stretches across most of the Â鶹Éç's output, including Sport, Â鶹Éç One and now Â鶹Éç Vision Productions.

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"Peter has a long and continuing connection with the North of England and is well known for his work at Granada.

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"He rightly commands huge respect across the Â鶹Éç and the wider media industry and I am very pleased he has decided to accept this exciting new role."

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Peter Salmon said: "This is the first big broadcasting venture of a new decade and can define the way the Â鶹Éç works for a generation.

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"I want to help build a world-class, creative powerhouse for the Â鶹Éç based in the North of England but networked into the whole UK.

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"I think this significant cluster of programme-making and broadcasting can be a magnet for other like-minded organisations too, from independent producers to facilities and technology companies, educational bodies to training groups for established and new media.

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"Though I will be sad to move on next year from leading the Â鶹Éç's in-house teams at Vision Productions – the biggest and best group of content-makers in the world – I am really happy that I will still be working with many of them in Salford Quays."

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Caroline Thomson, Chief Operating Officer, Â鶹Éç, said: "Peter is one of the outstanding editorial and creative leaders of his generation. He has presided over a period of tremendous success for Â鶹Éç Vision Productions.

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"His passion for programme-making combined with his long-standing connection and commitment to the North of England means he is ideally placed to lead such a challenging and ground-breaking project."

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Peter Salmon became Chief Creative Officer of Â鶹Éç Vision Productions in October 2006.

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He currently oversees the work of about 3,000 people for Â鶹Éç in-house production, making programmes throughout the country.

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Â鶹Éç in-house production is the largest content creator in the world, responsible for the likes of Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who, Top Gear, Antiques Roadshow, Dragons' Den, Top Gear, Watchdog, EastEnders, Survivors, The One Show and many more programmes from bases all over the UK.

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Peter started at the Â鶹Éç as a General Trainee in 1981 and, as a programme-maker, he eventually became Â鶹Éç Bristol's Head of Factual, in charge of shows like The Antiques Roadshow, CIA, 999 and Small Objects Of Desire.

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Along the way he directed the first-ever film shown on Crimewatch UK before going on to produce the series; he was responsible for more than 40 environmental programmes for Bristol's Natural History Unit; he was co-creator of Sport Relief, Â鶹Éç One's companion piece to Comic Relief, which has so far raised £75m; he signed Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park to the Â鶹Éç, where he then executive-produced Aardman Animation's Oscar-winning film The Wrong Trousers; he was producer on David Dimbleby's Â鶹Éç One history series Across The Great Divide; and he edited a major season of documentaries on Â鶹Éç Two, War And Peace, marking 50 years since the Second World War.

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He also worked on Blue Peter, Newsnight and Â鶹Éç RadioÌý1's Newsbeat and Manchester's File On Four current affairs series.

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Peter left the Â鶹Éç in the early Nineties and during his time in the commercial sector he oversaw some notable programmes.

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As Director of Programmes at Granada in Manchester, his output ranged from World In Action to Reckless, Hillsborough to the first episode of Cold Feet, Coronation Street to The Royle Family.

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As Controller of Factual Programmes for Channel 4, his teams won a record number of Baftas, RTS Awards and International Emmy awards as well as two consecutive Prix Italias.

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From 1997 to 2000 Peter was Controller of Â鶹Éç One, where he commissioned new projects as diverse as Clocking Off, Waking The Dead, Holby City, Dinnerladies, My Family, Warriors, Wives And Daughters, MacIntyre Undercover and Walking With Beasts.

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Then, from 2000 to 2005, as Director of Sport and a member of the Â鶹Éç's Executive Board, his teams produced The Athens Olympics, plus successive World Cup and European football campaigns.

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Peter pioneered sport interactive television at Wimbledon and the much-acclaimed Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games, as well as the development of Â鶹Éç Sport online.

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He also regained a number of key contracts for the Corporation, notably The Derby and Match Of The Day.

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He left the Â鶹Éç in 2005 to become Chief Executive at independent production company The Television Corporation, but quit following a takeover in summer 2006.

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Peter Salmon was born and brought up in Burnley, Lancashire.

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Notes to Editors

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1. The appointment of Peter Salmon as Director, Â鶹Éç North, was made by the Â鶹Éç Executive Board. The Â鶹Éç Trust has approved the position to join the membership of the Â鶹Éç Executive Board.

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2. The post of Chief Creative Officer, Â鶹Éç Vision Productions will be advertised in due course.

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3. Five Â鶹Éç London-based departments, including two TV channels and two radio stations, will move to MediaCityUK in Salford Quays in 2011. They are Â鶹Éç Children's (including CÂ鶹Éç and CBeebies); Â鶹Éç Formal Learning; parts of Â鶹Éç Future Media & Technology; Â鶹Éç Radio 5 Live (including 5 Live Sports Extra); and Â鶹Éç Sport.

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4. The Â鶹Éç has already announced that it intends to base commissioning executives for daytime, comedy and learning programmes at Salford Quays, reporting directly to Â鶹Éç Vision. Commissioning executives for Children's will move with the two channels, reporting (through the channel controller) to Director, Â鶹Éç North.

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5. The Â鶹Éç will be based in three new buildings at MediaCityUK, a 200-acre brownfield development and the UK's first media city. A separate studio block also forms part of the development, although this is not solely for the use of the Â鶹Éç. [The Â鶹Éç does not own the buildings nor is it responsible for their construction or the site's development; these are all the responsibility of Peel Holdings.]

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The mediacityUK consortium developing the site comprises Peel Holdings Ltd, the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), Central Salford Urban Regeneration Company and Salford City Council. [The Â鶹Éç is not a member of the consortium, nor is it a partner in the development, but as the anchor tenant does have a place on the Steering Group.]

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Final approval for the Â鶹Éç initiative was given by the Â鶹Éç Trust and agreement reached with the developer Peel Holdings on 31 May 2007. Preparatory work started on site in June 2007.

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6. Key dates:

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