Stuart Murphy Upped at Sky

LONDON: Stuart Murphy, the controller of Sky 1 HD and director of commissioning, has been promoted to the director of Sky entertainment channels.

Murphy takes on responsibility for the entertainment portfolio of Sky Atlantic HD, Sky Arts HD and Sky Living HD as well as Sky 1 HD. The director of each channel—Jane Johnson (Sky Living), Naomi Gibney (Sky Atlantic) and James Hunt (Sky Arts)—will report to Murphy. He continues to report to Sophie Turner Laing, Sky’s managing director of entertainment, news and broadcast operations.

"Over the past three years, under Stuart’s leadership, we have seen Sky 1 become a true destination channel, offering our customers some of the finest drama, comedy and entertainment programs on television at the moment," said Turner Laing. "I have no doubt that in his new role, he’ll bring the same vision and drive to the rest of the portfolio, working with the team to look at the next steps for the rest of our—already first class—entertainment channels."

Murphy added, "Getting Sky 1 HD to where we are today was a real team effort and I can’t wait to work with Sophie, the channel heads, the commissioning heads and the indie community to look at how we take the entertainment channels to the next phase."