Sky Entertainment Channels Director to quit


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Editor

| 17 October 2015





In the second major departure in a matter of days of a creative leader at the top of UK TV, Stuart Murphy has announced he is to leave pay-TV giant Sky.


Just like the recent departure of Danny Cohen from the BBC, Sky’s Director, Entertainment Channels has decided to step down from his role in order to ‘pursue other creative opportunities'.

Murphy had responsibility for Sky’s portfolio of entertainment channels as well as the comedy, drama and factual and entertainment commissioning teams. He is a board member of the History channels, Jupiter Productions and a board observer at virtual reality firm Jaunt.

In his six and a half years with Sky, Murphy helmed the expansion of the portfolio of Sky entertainment channels including Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Arts and Sky Living. He developed the team responsible for multi-award winning content from A League Of Their Own, An Idiot Abroad, David Attenborough’s Natural History Museum Alive, Fortitude, and the upcoming Fungus The Bogeyman.

Explaining his departure, Murphy said: “My sadness at leaving a company I love is tempered by my immense pride in what we have achieved together. Sky is a company in rude health, bursting with ideas, creativity and sheer fun and I leave the department in the hands of colleagues I love and admire."

Adding his commenting on the departure, Gary Davey, managing director, content, Sky, said: “Stuart has played an important part in the growth of Sky’s content over the past six years. I’d like to thank him for his creative leadership and everything he has done to build Sky’s entertainment channels. He’s been responsible for brilliant dramas [and] has developed compelling channel brands that our customers value and commissioned content they love. He leaves behind a strong and well-respected commissioning team who will take our content to even greater heights and we look forward to working with him in the future.”