Gill Pritchard appointed Director of Audience Technologies & Insight

18 January 2011

Gill Pritchard, Director of Audience Technologies and Insight

Channel 4 today announces the appointment of Gill Pritchard to its executive leadership team in the new role of Director of Audience Technologies and Insight. Gill will take up her post with immediate effect and report directly to Chief Executive David Abraham.

Gill will be responsible for transforming the way Channel 4 collates and uses data and viewer insight in order to inspire new ideas and maximize Channel 4's competitiveness as a media provider. Gill will lead all activities relating to research, data capture, database management analytics and its dissemination and commercial use throughout Channel 4.

Commenting on the appointment David Abraham, Channel 4's Chief Executive, said: "Last year I announced the re-structure of my executive team in order to unlock Channel 4's full creative and commercial potential and the appointment of Gill to the new post of Director of Audience Technologies and Insight is the final piece of the jigsaw.

Channel 4 has a unique relationship with its audience who feel a great affinity with our content and brands. Gill will harness this relationship to deliver the optimum benefit for our consumers. As well as helping us realize our commercial goals, she will be the evangelist for the potential of data across the organization.

This is a first for the UK broadcast industry, and with a background in economic analysis as well as broadcasting and strategy Gill is a natural fit for this dynamic new position. I look forward to working with her and realizing the potential of deeper audience understanding and interaction across all platforms."

The development of new technology means converged devices (YouView and other internet connected sets, smartphones and tablets) will soon be part of the mainstream, creating a transformational opportunity for the traditional broadcast model.

These new devices and technologies allow for real time interactions with the entire audience; from a creative point of view enabling personalized viewing experiences for consumers, and from a commercial point of view giving Channel 4 the opportunity to innovate the monetization of those interactions, both to advertisers and through direct payments.

Gill Pritchard says: "Building on our reputation for innovation and the advantage of having such a young, technology-savvy audience, Channel 4 will use the latest technologies and analytics to become the most viewer centric broadcaster in the UK. In this exciting new era our priority is to foster the use of data-driven relationships with audiences throughout Channel 4, helping to deliver pioneering new ideas and business models for the fully converged future."

Gill will build a new group within Channel 4 which will include the existing research and insight team, the viewer support team and audience technologies.

Gill joined Channel 4 as Director of Strategy in September 2008. In August 2010 she was promoted to Director of Strategy and Corporate Development with responsibility for the channel's Corporate Development function, including all M&A and partnerships.

She led the channel's involvement in the new connected TV platform YouView, and is a Board Director of both YouView and Freeview (the free to air TV platform in over 10 million UK homes). Gill has formulated and led major commercial policy decisions whilst at Channel 4 and was responsible for the group strategy of Channel 4 Corporation including its commercial, digital and regulatory strategy.

Prior to joining Channel 4 Gill held a number of senior positions at BBC Worldwide including Director of Children's and Head of Strategy. She also led BBC Worldwide's commercial on-demand strategy.

From 1999 to 2003 Gill worked across strategy consulting and economic analysis at Anderson Building Consulting for clients in the media, retail and FMCG industries.

Gill will take up her new post with immediate effect and join Chief Creative Officer, Jay Hunt; Director of Marketing and Communications, Dan Brooke; Chief Operating Officer, Anne Bulford; Director of Sales, Andy Barnes and Director of Human Resources, Diane Herbert.

Following Gill's promotion, Keith Underwood, Channel 4 Head of Strategy, will take over responsibility for Strategy and Glyn Isherwood, Channel 4 Director of Finance, will take on Corporate Development.