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Report: David Mott headed to ABC?

Media reports that David Mott may be in the running for the Director of Television role at the ABC.

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2013-03-25_0127The Australian today reports that former TEN Programming Chief David Mott may be in the running for the Director of Television role at the ABC.

The role was vacated recently by Kim Dalton and media has speculated that other names under consideration are:

Deirdre Brennan, General manager and director of channels, BBC Worldwide.
Matt Campbell, formerly General Manager at Shine Australia and Director of Television at SBS.
Lynley Marshall, CEO of ABC International.
Brendan Dahill, ABC1 Channel Director.
Courtney Gibson, Programming production executive at Nine
Anita Jacoby, formerly with Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder’s

When David Mott left TEN in August it is understood his payout included the usual non-compete clause that he could not resurface at another network for twelve months.

Rather unkindly, The Australian article only focusses on Mott’s failures in his final years and neglects to mention any of his successes. TV sure is an unforgiving game….

16 Responses

  5. Ha ha! I love reading some of the dross on this site! I think some of you should apply to be head of ABC TV, since you are clearly such experts!! And yes I also love using exclamation marks a lot!!!!!!!!!!

  6. “…a more commercially minded head of television would not be a bad thing.”

    I completely and utterly disagree. The ABC should not be a clone of Seven, Nine, or Ten. It doesn’t need any more “boldness”, “irreverence”, or “noise”.

    There are some pretty dodgy programs on ABC2 now. I fear that someone of Mott’s background would only make it worse and turn it into ABC Poo.

  9. David Mott worked in a straight forward commercial free to air environment. The ABC is a labyrinth of bureaucracy that successive CEOs have failed to address and Heads of Television have continually been frustrated by. I think David Mott would struggle in this environment. But equally the other candidates are ill equipped with the possible exception of Deirdre Brennan who has now proved herself at both the ABC and in commercial TV environments in Australia. Mark Scott is a news guy with little experience with all the other content the ABC produces and it has showed. The depressing thing seems to be that there seem to be no other candidates noted for this job with demonstrable administrative skills and a strong sense of content creation. Perhaps David you should ask Mark Scott just what he is looking for.

  10. Mott is a great choice for the ABC. It was FremantleMedia that let Mott and Ten down with their two big expensive flops (Everybody Dance Now & I Will Survive).

    I think he’d be a brilliant appointment.

  11. Mott would be a solid choice. Highly experienced, and known as one of the local TV business’ true gentlemen. This track record business is all terribly unkind — his track record generally was strong. It tanked when new management was appointed above him (known to be responsible for several calamities including hiring Old Mate from NZ for the breakfast holocaust). It’s hard to resist the conclusion that Mott was fired because of the rank cluelessness of those above him, one of whom has already been fired in record time.

  12. For the sake of the TV industry, lets hope that Mott is not appointed. The last thing the ABC needs is his poorly thought through strategies and his appalling sense of programming. He contributed to the demise of TEN, for the future of the ABC lets hope he is not permitted to continue in the business.

  13. I think David Mott would shake things up a bit at the ABC, in a good way. The ABC is going through a period of creative complacency and has been for a few years, a more commercially minded head of television would not be a bad thing.

  15. He did oversee some success and he recently oversaw incredible failure. In the business world we are often judged on our recent records especially in industry landscapes that change rapidly.

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