New Appointments to the two of the best gigs in TV & What is BBC Vision

Press Release:

Peter Salmon and Jane Tranter will fill new leadership roles in BBC Vision, the BBC's new multimedia content, commissioning and channels group, Jana Bennett, who will be Director of BBC Vision, announced today.

Peter Salmon joins BBC Vision in October 2006 to take on the new role of Chief Creative Officer, BBC Vision Studios.

He will lead BBC Vision's in-house production studios, the biggest integrated multimedia production group in the world.

With nearly 5,000 programme-makers throughout the UK, across drama, entertainment, comedy and factual, learning and children's programmes, he will spearhead the BBC's in-house drive to create the highest quality content.

Jane Tranter assumes the new role of Controller, BBC Fiction, leading the group which covers Drama Commissioning, Comedy Commissioning, Programme Acquisitions and BBC Film.

She will build connections between comedy and drama and draw up a more cohesive strategy between BBC Films and Programme Acquisitions, making the most of the planned increase in British film investment.

BBC Vision was announced in July as part of the BBC's organisational change to meet the challenges and opportunities of its Creative Future content strategy.

Led by Jana Bennett, BBC Vision will be responsible for in-house multimedia production, commissioning and audio-visual services, including the TV channel portfolio and digital developments such as high definition and interactive television.

Three key positions on the BBC Vision Group board are still to be appointed: Controller of Entertainment Commissioning, Controller of Knowledge Commissioning and Controller of Portfolio and Multimedia Services, responsible for developing BBC Vision's portfolio, strategy and scheduling.

Who Are They?

Peter Salmon

Peter Salmon has a long and distinguished track record as a programme-maker and executive.

As Controller of BBC ONE from 1997 to 2000, he commissioned projects as diverse as Clocking Off, Waking The Dead, Holby City, Dinnerladies, My Family, Wives and Daughters, MacIntyre Undercover and Walking With Beasts.

Then, as Director of Sport and a member of the BBC's Executive Board, he oversaw BBC coverage of the 2002 Athens Olympics, plus successive World Cup and European football campaigns.

He pioneered sport interactive television at Wimbledon and The Manchester Commonwealth Games as well as the development of BBC Sport online.

He also regained a number of key contracts for the BBC, notably The Derby and Premiership highlights for Match Of The Day.

He left the BBC in 2005 to become Chief Executive at The Television Corporation, but quit following a takeover earlier this year.

Jane Tranter

Since being appointed Controller, Drama Commissioning in 2000, Jane Tranter has revived the BBC's reputation for delivering modern, unique and distinctive programmes.

She oversees an ambitious drama slate - from the bold innovations of Bleak House, Life on Mars, State of Play and some strikingly contemporary takes on Chaucer and Shakespeare - to successful returning series Waking the Dead, Spooks and Silent Witness, and popular continuing dramas series EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City.

In 2005 she led the regeneration of Doctor Who, perhaps her most outstanding achievement to date.

With Jane's support and encouragement, leading writing talents - Andrew Davies, Stephen Poliakoff, Russell T Davies, Paul Abbot, Jimmy McGovern and Tony Marchant – have delivered some of their best work for BBC audiences.

What is BBC Vision?

The Restructuring of the BBC focuses on content delivery through new media channels. Additionally, all BBC content will be organised in three divisions: Journalism, BBC Vision, and Audio and Music.

Mark Thompson told us “360 degree content creation, delivering for our linear television channels but also for all the new on-demand and web-based platforms needs to become practical reality rather than just rhetoric and this new grouping will enable us to do that. We want a group of commissioners who really do think 360, commissioning the website, say, or the mobisode at the same time as the TV programme — or vice versa because we think more and more ideas will start in the digital space.”

To read the whole of MT’s speech about Vision, Check Here.