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Who will become 7’s Chief Content Officer?

Will James Warburton still appoint a Chief Content Officer or should he take on the role himself?

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Is Seven still planning to appoint a Chief Content Officer?

Or could CEO James Warburton take it on himself?

That’s the question some are asking at the moment after last week’s Upfronts.

Warburton made a confident debut as Seven CEO, conceding network under-performance, vowing to invest 30% more in content and indicating he is more than just his sales background.

Visiting Perth on the weekend for Telethon, he privately demonstrated detailed knowledge of shows and casts he was keen to beef up, not trim down.

The pool for candidates as possible Chief Content Officer is not deep… current and former programmers at rival networks and production company CEOs sitting at the top of the list. Or overseas candidates.

While Warburton has instigated a “flatter” management team, would adding a Chief Content Officer be in contrast if the boss has a passion for the role?

That said, it’s still a hefty position. The Chief Content Officer will oversee Programming (Angus Ross), Seven Studios (Therese Hegarty), News (Craig McPherson), Sport (Lewis Martin) and 7Queensland (Ben Roberts-Smith).

Officially, Seven is still on the hunt for someone to take up the title.

Last week a Seven spokesperson told TV Tonight, “We’re recruiting for the Chief Content Officer role via a headhunter.”

5 Responses

  2. @ Pip, David Mott has previously worked for Seven, Ten and Nine before. I believe he is currently working for ITV. If I had it my way, I’d bring veteran programmer John Stephens out of retirement and let him work his magic. The man has a trajectory of contacts and a knack of acquiring quality content.

  3. They should be throwing money at David Mott to rescue them and steer them away from the mediocre recycled content Warburton thinks will attract viewers. Most of what Mott commissioned at Ten was groundbreaking and innovative. It didn’t all work but what did led to copycat programming by those at the other networks who are risk averse and unoriginal.

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