Sky Taps Pair of New Commissioners for Kids’ Content

Ian France and Estelle Hughes are joining Sky as commissioning editors for kids in two newly created roles.

France previously worked as head of presentation for BBC Children’s and as executive producer for shows such as CBeebies Bedtime Stories and Saturday Mash Up. Hughes joins from Roobydoo Media, where she was joint owner and managing director and worked as executive producer of CITV’s Thunderbirds Are Go. She was also previously controller at CITV.

France and Hughes will join Sky in the coming weeks, working alongside Lucy Murphy, who has been promoted to director of kids’ content for the U.K. and Ireland, effective immediately. Murphy was appointed Sky’s first head of kids’ content in 2015.

Murphy said, “Ian and Estelle will bring a huge wealth of experience and understanding of our audience of 1- to 12-year-olds and their changing viewing behaviors. This, alongside their senior production experience, will help realize our vision for Sky Kids to be the best dedicated entertainment experience for kids, bringing the very best original content to our service, alongside all our brilliant kids’ channels.”

Zai Bennett, managing director of content at Sky, said, “I’m delighted that Lucy has accepted this new leadership role at Sky. Lucy has been instrumental at establishing successful shows such as Morph, Moominvalley and BAFTA-winning Play Your Pets Right. Lucy, joined by Ian and Estelle, will be key in continuing to build the success of Sky Kids, as we look to increase our original kids’ content to give families more of what they love.”