BSkyB Confirms Milligan To Oversee Advertising Sales Arm
BSkyB has confirmed that Five’s deputy chief executive, Nick Milligan, has been appointed to take up a newly created role of managing director of its advertising sales operation.
Milligan, who has occupied a number of senior positions at Five, will lead Sky Media’s strategic development as the satellite broadcaster looks at ways to increase its advertising revenues.
Reporting to Dawn Airey, managing director of Sky Networks, Milligan will take responsibility for maximising commercial revenues across Sky’s wholly-owned television channels and the portfolio of third-party channels for which it sells airtime on an agency basis.
Five executive will also face the challenge of increasing BSkyB’s commercial operations to bring in more revenue. Theoretically the satellite broadcaster could merge its sales team with Channel 4, Five or Interactive Digital Sales to make it a larger player in the market for television advertising.
Commenting on the appointment, Airey said: “Nick Milligan is a talented and highly experienced television executive with an outstanding knowledge of the advertising sales environment. I am confident that his appointment to this new role will add further momentum to Sky Media’s current strong growth.”
Milligan added: “I am delighted to be joining to the UK’s leading multi-channel broadcaster. With Sky channels now received by a majority of UK homes, BSkyB is well placed to strengthen further the commercial revenues derived from its channel portfolio and interactive services.”
Speculation about Milligan joining BSkyB has been rife since Dawn Airey resigned as Five chief executive to join BSkyB as managing director of Sky Networks in September 2002. However, it is understood that a clause in Airey’s contract prevented her from poaching staff from Five for at least a year (see Airey’s Departure Represents Coup For BSkyB).
Reports had also linked Milligan to the sales director job at the newly created ITV if the broadcaster had been forced to divest its sales operations following the merger of Carton and Granada. However, this came to nothing when a single ITV sales house was cleared by the Competition Commission (see ITV Cleared To Merge With Sales Houses Intact).
Milligan joined Five as sales director after its launch as Channel 5 in 1997. He was then promoted to the role of deputy chief executive in 2000 following the departure of the then chief executive David Elstein. Some had tipped Milligan to take over the top role at Five following the Airey’s departure, but the channel named former Flextech head, Jane Lighting, as chief executive in February last year (see Channel Five Names Lighting As New Chief Executive).
Lighting said: “It’s a sad day for the channel to lose one of its founding directors and architects of its success, especially when it is an executive as dynamic and well-liked as Nick. I have great personal and professional respect for Nick and have found his expertise and advice invaluable since becoming chief executive of Five.”
BSkyB: 0207 705 3000 www.sky.com
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