ABC Australia Installs Chief Content Officer

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Chris Oliver-Taylor has been appointed to the newly created role of chief content officer at ABC Australia.

Oliver-Taylor is currently Netflix’s director of production for Australia and New Zealand and has held previous roles at the ABC and BBC. He served as managing director of NBCUniversal’s Matchbox Pictures and was CEO of Fremantle Asia Pacific.

Now, at the ABC, Oliver-Taylor will be responsible for the new content division created from the merger of the current entertainment and specialist and regional and local divisions. He will be reporting to ABC Managing Director David Anderson.

“Chris is one of the most experienced, both locally and internationally, content leaders in the industry with a well-honed sense of audience expectations and creative trends across platforms and technologies,” Anderson said.

“The ABC Chief Content Officer is a role that requires leadership across all content platforms—screen, audio and digital—and must have the right creative approach to support the work of all our content teams and deliver for the Australian public.

“I am very pleased that a leader of Chris’s experience and caliber is joining us for the next stage of the ABC’s story.”

Oliver-Taylor said, “This is a critically important role for the ABC, and I am absolutely thrilled to bring my experience of leading incredibly talented people to the ABC at a vital time in its history.

“In a time of infinite choice across screen, audio and digital, we must deliver high quality and impactful content that resonates with all Australians, and I know to deliver this impact, you can only do it with an amazing team.

“I am very much looking forward to working with David, the leadership team and all the talented people at the ABC to ensure the ABC continues to be trusted, relevant and valued into the future.”

Anna Mallett, Netflix’s VP of production for APAC/EMEA/U.K., said, “Chris is hugely talented and has made significant contributions leading our studio in Australia and New Zealand since joining Netflix. We are enormously grateful to Chris, wish him every success for the future and look forward to working with him again as a content partner.”

Anderson acknowledged and thanked Jennifer Collins, who has acted as director of entertainment and specialist for the past nine months. “Jennifer is an outstanding leader and has done a wonderful job,” he said. “Chris and I both look forward to Jen performing a significant senior content role in the newly merged content division, leading the content strategy into the future.”

He also acknowledged and thanked Warwick Tiernan and Lee Glendinning for their work acting as director for regional and local since Judith Whelan took up the role of editorial director earlier this year. Both Whelan and Tiernan will continue in those roles, reporting to Oliver-Taylor when he starts in late March until the new content division comes into effect from July 1, 2023.