Stuart Murphy promoted to Director, Sky Entertainment Channels

April 30: 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,” comments 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 - already 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.

For further information please contact

Manisha Ferdinand - Head of Sky Arts and Sky Movies PR, Sky Press Office
T: 0207 032 2842
E: manisha.ferdinand@bskyb.com

Chris Aylott - Head of PR, Sky 1 HD
T: 020 7032 2893
E: chris.aylott@bskyb.com

Notes to editor

Sky entertains and excites more than 10.4 million homes through the most comprehensive multichannel, multi-platform television service in the UK and Ireland. Sky continues to break new ground with its own portfolio of channels: Sky 1 combines its commitment to UK production with the best of the US; Sky Living pushes ahead with fresh and innovative entertainment formats; Sky Arts is the UK's only dedicated arts channel brand; Sky Atlantic is the home to HBO and other iconic drama and comedy, Sky Sports is still raising the bar in sports broadcasting; Sky News remains a pioneer in television news; and Sky Movies is leading the way in High Definition and on-demand.

Sky also works with dozens of other broadcasters on the satellite platform, as well as online and on mobile through the ground-breaking Sky Go service.  Sky has also led the UK into the age of high definition television, launched Europe's first 3DTV channel, Sky 3D, and offers customer even more flexibility and choice through Sky Anytime+, its internet-delivered video on demand service.   Since launching Sky Broadband and Sky Talk in 2006, the company has also been the UK's fastest-growing home communications provider.