Channel 4 Poaches Five’s Director Of Acquisitions

Five’s managing editor and director of acquisitions, Jeff Ford, will be replacing Channel 4’s head of acquisitions June Dromgoole following the announcement of her retirement.

Ford, who has been at Five since 1997, will leave the broadcaster on 22 April, but his start date has yet to be confirmed and could be later this year. As director of acquisitions for Channel 4, Ford will report to chief executive Andy Duncan and will be involved in work across Channel 4, E4, More4 and FilmFour.

During his time at Five, Ford brought high profile dramas such as CSI, Law and Order, and The Shield to the channel. He also snatched the spin-off sitcom to Friends, Joey, albeit at a rumoured cost of £450,000 per episode.

Dromgoole, who has been at Channel 4 for over seven years, has recently picked up hit US shows such as Desperate Housewives and the forthcoming drama Lost. Her biggest coup has been poaching The Simpson’s from the BBC, fending off an aggressive bid from Five in the process.

Last month, Channel 4 announced the details of its forthcoming online-only documentary channel, FourDocs, providing broadband users with access to the best documentary content the broadcaster has to offer.

Launching later this year, Channel 4 states that the new offering “celebrates all aspects of the documentary genre,” providing a “vibrant community covering the whole area of documentaries where users can upload and download their own films (see

Channel 4 Unveils FourDocs To Boost PSB Content Online Channel 4 Sees Best January In Years After Audience Boost).

The impressive performance follows a strong 2004 for the broadcaster, in which its audience grew by 2% year on year. A spokesman for Channel 4 cited a “robust” start to 2005 as the main reason for the 11% growth in share, year on year, which compares favourably with a fall in audience share for other major terrestrial channels in the same period.

Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv

Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com

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