STV Group on ‘exciting growth journey’ after naming high-ranking ITV director as new chief executive

STV Group, the Glasgow-based broadcaster, has appointed a high-ranking ITV boss as its new chief executive.

Until April of this year, Rufus Radcliffe was a member of ITV’s executive committee and latterly held the position of managing director of streaming, interactive and data, playing a key role in the acceleration of ITV's digital transformation. He was responsible for the strategic development and launch of ITVX in December 2022.

Over a 13-year career with ITV, Radcliffe previously held the positions of chief marketing officer, where he ran all direct-to-consumer activities and led the brand transformation of ITV, as well as the marketing launch of BritBox. He also served as group marketing and research director. Prior to joining ITV, he spent nine years at Channel 4.

Until April of this year, Rufus Radcliffe was a member of ITV’s executive committee and latterly held the position of managing director of streaming, interactive and data.

STV has had something of a fractious relationship with ITV in the past. The group, which was once called Scottish Media Group, has never been subsumed into the vast ITV empire, despite previous talk of a potential takeover.

The change at the top for STV, which holds the Scottish Television and Grampian Television licences, follows the announcement in March of Simon Pitts’ intention to step down from the board and his role as chief executive. He will do that on October 31 with Radcliffe formally taking up the post on November 1.

Radcliffe said: “STV is a great brand with an enviable track record of making high quality, must-watch content and has a strong relationship with viewers and advertisers. I’m thrilled to be joining and cannot wait to work with everyone at STV to build on the tremendous success and growth of the past few years.”

Paul Reynolds, chairman of STV, which is due to release its results to investors next Tuesday, said: “The board is delighted to welcome Rufus to lead STV following a competitive selection process involving some of the best leadership talent in the UK media industry. We now embark on the next phase of STV’s exciting growth journey as a digital first, content-led business and Rufus brings with him a rare breadth of strategic and operational expertise from his previous significant industry roles. We very much look forward to working with him.”

Separately, STV announced that Colin Jones would be appointed to the board as an independent non-executive director and chair of its audit and risk committee on September 2. Described as an experienced FTSE-250 financial officer, Jones had a “highly successful” executive career in the technology, media and telecommunications sector.

He served as chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Euromoney Institutional Investor, the global information and events business, where he worked for 22 years, until 2018. Since then, he has pursued a non-executive career.

Reynolds added: “Colin’s impressive track-record brings with it a wealth of valuable experience to STV. His keen interest in the media sector, extensive finance and non-executive experience and his detailed understanding of the challenges faced by small cap businesses will be of benefit to us. Colin is a very strong addition to our board at an exciting time of growth for the company.”

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