Lewis appointed director of Sky Movies and Sky Box Office

by Mark Banham, Brand Republic 29-Mar-07, 17:30

LONDON - BSkyB has appointed Ian Lewis as director of Sky Movies and Sky Box Office, switching from his role as director of broadcasting.

In his new role, Lewis will take responsibility for Sky's new genre-based range of subscription movie channels as well as Sky's pay-per-view service, Sky Box Office. He will report to Sophie Turner Laing, who assumed the role of managing director for entertainment in February.

Lewis said: "I've realised Sky Movies is run by a team of movie fanatics, who are passionate about giving our customers the very best. No other service delivers the breadth and quality of Sky Movies and I'm tremendously excited about the opportunities which lie ahead."

The Sky Movies service will be repackaged on April 4 leading to the introduction of a portfolio of genre-based movie channels.

The channels will include comedy, drama, family, action/thriller, indie, classic, modern greats and sci-fi/horror, as well as dedicated HD channels.

Sky currently broadcasts 90% of the previous year's top 100 box office films. In addition to the range of first-run movies and classics, Sky Movies also features approximately 150 HD films and around 20 Sky Movies premieres a month.

"Ian takes the helm of a Sky Movies service which offers customers more than ever before and which is pioneering new ways to enjoy great content on broadband and mobile. Sky Movies is well placed to respond to demands for increased choice and flexibility and I know Ian and his team will only enhance this outstanding service yet further," Turner Laing said.

Lewis joined BSkyB in 1999 as head of promotion strategy, overseeing the company's on-air promotion, before becoming director of schedules and promotion in 2002, where he was charged with overseeing a network scheduling strategy across the various Sky channel teams.

In 2003 he was promoted to director of broadcasting, a new role with a wide and varied brief across all of Sky's entertainment channels and various additional services including HD, video-on-demand and mobile TV.

Prior to joining Sky, Lewis worked for Zenith Media, rising to become one of the managing partners of the UK operation after spending 11 years at the agency.