The Stage

Fears for drama and comedy as Opie takes charge at C5

Published Wednesday 1 November 2006 at 15:50 by Liz Thomas

Five’s appointment of former Flextech managing director Lisa Opie into the newly created senior programming post of managing director of content has prompted concern that the regime change will lead to further job losses.

The broadcaster’s ratings have haemorrhaged in the past year, with audience share dropping by more than 11%, a situation that has led to current director of programmes Dan Chambers stepping down.

Key areas such as drama and comedy have failed to bring in viewers despite the extra millions invested in them, prompting fears that Opie will instigate redundancies in both genres.

One source told The Stage that Chambers’ departure was not unexpected: “The only surprise is the speed with which this has happened. Figures haven’t been great this year so it has been a question of when rather than if.

“Of course, it is an issue for the commissioning editors that remain. Put simply, when new people come in they always want to make changes. Both drama and comedy are possible targets because they are expensive and some of the recent programming in both genres has struggled to deliver figures in return.”

Opie replaces Chambers on the company board. If a new director of programmes is appointed, it will be a non-board position and they will report to her.

An insider said: “It is terribly sad. Dan really is one of the good guys and I’ve no doubt he will end up as a head of factual or something similar at one of the leading independents. I presume that he would have been told his role was going to be diminished and he, as you would, thought ‘no thanks’.”

The move comes at a time when the broadcaster is expanding into new digital television and it seems that a new management structure is being created to tackle the challenge of running a number of different stations.

Five chief executive Jane Lighting said: “Dan has done a good job at Five and has been a wonderful colleague.

“However we now need a creative director with the skills and expertise to run a portfolio of channels. I worked with Lisa during my time at Flextech and I know she has the expertise and ability to take Five into the next phase of its digital strategy and to develop our content strategy across all platforms.”