Kevin Lygo departs Channel 4 for ITV

ITV has confirmed the appointment of Channel 4’s director of television and content Kevin Lygo as the head of ITV Studios.  New ITV chief executive Adam Crozier, who officially started his reign on Monday, recently made hiring a big name to run ITV Studios his top priority.

As reported at the start of the week, Kevin Lygo recently held talks with Adam Crozier and ITV chairman Archie Norman to discuss the role. He has now been officially named as the new managing director of ITV Studios with a mission to help the division develop more successful programming formats.

Speaking about his appointment, Crozier said that a clear outcome of ITV’s ongoing strategy review has been the importance of the firm’s production business.

“Kevin’s appointment underlines our commitment to ensuring home-grown content stays at the heart of our business and our focus on attracting the very best creative talent, both on and off-screen, to ITV,” he said.  “His track record in finding hit programmes and exploiting content will be invaluable as ITV focuses on improving its hit rate across all platforms – television, online and mobile.

“With Kevin in place heading up the content business and working alongside Peter Fincham, who has been fully involved in the appointment process, ITV now has a team of unrivalled creative talent working right across the company.”

Crozier also praised the “fantastic job” done by previous head of ITV Studios Lee Bartlett, who will continue to oversee the division’s “international interests”.

ITV director of television, channels and online Peter Fincham described Lygo’s appointment as a “great signing” for ITV at the start of a “new era for the company”.

He added: “Working closely with ITV Studios is a high priority for the network as we seek to ensure that we secure the best possible programmes, and talent, for all our channels. Kevin is uniquely placed to make a real difference to those key objectives.”

Lygo described ITV Studios as “one of the most successful commercial producers in the UK”, which owns some of television’s “biggest brands”.

“Our goal is to keep those programmes fresh and relevant, develop new hits and exploit the full value of those properties across all platforms in the UK and internationally,” he said.

“I am very excited about the new challenges ahead in content production and to be working closely with Adam and Peter. I know we are very much looking forward to working together as a team to make ITV the creative powerhouse and global player it deserves to be. ITV is – and should remain – the home of great entertainment.”

During his tenure at Channel 4, Lygo has been responsible for shows such as Skins, Come Dine With Me, The Inbetweeners, Deal Or No Deal and Jamie’s School Dinners.

Reacting to Lygo’s departure, acting Channel 4 chief executive Anne Bulford said: “Kevin’s track record at Channel 4 speaks for itself. He’s been an outstanding creative leader; commissioning and inspiring many of our most iconic, successful and acclaimed programmes during a period of critical and commercial success.

“He hides his passion for Channel 4 behind a light-hearted manner, but no-one has been more seriously committed to our cause in the last few years. Kevin is a popular and admired colleague and has played a considerable part in developing and shaping the careers of many current and former Channel 4 staff.

“I know everyone at Channel 4 will be looking forward to working with him at the helm of one of our programme suppliers and will join me in wishing him every success in this exciting new role.”