BBC Appoints Archive Director

LONDON, July
22: Roly Keating has been named as the BBC’s first director of archive content,
responsible for maximizing public access to the company’s growing television,
radio and multimedia library.

In this new role, Keating
will lead all of the BBC’s divisions in developing and implementing a
cross-company strategy to grow archive access, covering public-service and
commercial platforms as well as third-party partners. He will work with Erik Huggers,
the BBC’s new director of future media and technology, to set priorities for
archive digitization and public access to program information.

Keating, currently the
controller of BBC Two, has been upped to the BBC Direction group, effective
October. He will report to Jana Bennett, the director of BBC Vision. Within Vision, Keating will have
editorial responsibility for the release and management of the division’s
catch-up and archive content on all platforms, including the BBC iPlayer, UKTV
and other on-demand or commercial services. He will work closely with Simon
Nelson, the controller of portfolio and multiplatform. For other BBC divisions,
Keating will head up the overall editorial strategy for archive release.

Mark Thompson, the BBC’s
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 license
payers.

"Roly is passionate
about the potential of the archive and, with his fantastic track record as a
program maker and channel controller, he is ideally placed to lead this
exciting project," Thompson added.

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski