British Broadcasting Heavyweight Dawn Airey Appointed Channel 4 Interim Chair

deadline.com:

Former Channel 5 Director of Programmes Dawn Airey has been appointed Interim Chair of Channel 4 and will likely steer the network through the upcoming privatization decision.Airey joined the Channel 4 Board as Non-Executive Director late last year and her appointment today has been approved by UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.She will replace incumbent Charles Gurassa later this week, who is stepping down after six years, and remain until a permanent Chair has been appointed.Airey is a high-profile British broadcasting figure who was ViacomCBS-owned Channel 5’s Director Of Programmes and held two stints as Chair/CEO.

She is also a former Director of Global Content for ITV and Managing Director of Channels and Services for Sky.She was appointed to the board alongside former Today program editor Sarah Sands, former advertising body Thinkbox CEO Tess Alps and Reuters’ ex-Managing Director Global David Kogan in December.The move comes as a decision on whether to privatize the publicly-owned Channel 4 by the UK government looms, although Deadline revealed last week that this decision has likely been delayed until the Spring.When first proposed, selling Channel 4 looked like a done deal but Dorries appears less keen and has turned her focused mainly on the BBC since taking the job in September.New and returning series on broadcast, cable and streamingSeries that made it or didn’t make it in 2020-21Broadcast networks’ fall lineups and schedules