Roly Keating To Leave BBC Two

BBC Two controller Roly Keating is to leave the channel in October to take a new role as the broadcaster’s director of archive content.

In his new role – reporting to Jana Bennett, director of BBC Vision – he will have responsibility for maximising public access to the BBC’s archive of television, radio and multimedia content.

Working with Erik Huggers, the BBC’s new director of future media & technology (see BBC Appoints Erik Huggers Director Of Future Media), Keating will set the editorial and strategic priorities for archive digitisation and public access to programme information.

Within BBC Vision, Keating will have editorial responsibility for the release and management of BBC Vision’s catch-up and archive content on all platforms, including the BBC iPlayer, UKTV and other on-demand or commercial services, working closely with Simon Nelson, controller, portfolio & multiplatform.

Mark Thompson, BBC director-general, said: “The BBC has the largest audio-visual archive in the world. We want to make sure there is greater public access to this archive, whilst also ensuring the archive is fully exploited for the benefit of licence payers.

“Roly is passionate about the potential of the Archive and, with his fantastic track record as a programme maker and channel controller, he is ideally placed to lead this exciting project.”

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