STV remains bullish with new appointments to leadership team
STV has appointed David Brook, who has worked previously with Channel 4, five and the Guardian newspaper, to its new leadership team as director of programmes and marketing, with responsibility for the stv brand and regional programming.
The news comes as STV Group plc remains bullish for the year ahead following the release of its interim management statement covering the period from 28 August to 7 November 2008.
According to a statement released by the company, trading continues to meet board expectations and the business is on track to meet its full year 2008 targets.
"We have a strong balance sheet with committed bank facilities which provide considerable headroom and mature in December 2012," said a statement from the broadcaster.
The statement continued: "With the uncertain economic outlook, trading conditions across the ITV Network are likely to remain challenging in 2009 with the national airtime market down 6% and the ITV Network some 6% behind this due to CRR. As in 2008, we expect a stronger performance than this from our regional sales team who are not constrained by CRR. Our growth plans for Ventures and Content remain in line with our KPIs. We will continue to maintain our strong focus on reducing the cost base of the business which has benefited this year with further savings being identified for 2009.
"Since our interim results in August, we have continued to deliver on our promises and have completed the following: the return of £30 million to shareholders by way of a tender offer; the change of company name to stv group plc, reflecting the focus on television; a 1 for 20 share consolidation process."
STV has also revealed that it’s senior management structure has been "enhanced" to reflect the business’ strategy and priorities for the business. The team reports directly to Rob Woodward and will be structured as follows:
George Watt, CFO, stv group plc;
Anmar Kawash, becomes chief operating officer (previously Director of Strategy and Planning);
Bobby Hain will be director of broadcast services and regulatory affairs (previously MD of Broadcasting) providing an increased focus on stv’s position regarding Ofcom’s PSB Review;
David Brook joins the leadership team on an interim basis as director of programmes and marketing, with responsibility for the stv brand and regional programming;
David Connolly joins the leadership team as stv’s commercial director;
Suzanne Burns, HR director;
Alan Clements, director of content;
David Archer, MD of ventures; and
Kathryn Jacob, MD of Pearl & Dean.
Rob Woodward, CEO of stv group plc said: “We are continuing to perform robustly despite the current challenging market conditions and the transformed stv is now in a financially strong position. With an enhanced management structure in place and well defined KPIs, we remain on track to deliver on our strategy and to meet our KPIs.”