Channel 5 to announce Jeff Ford’s replacement, promotes Dunthorne

Channel 5 is set to announce a new head of content to look after commissioning and acquisitions following the departure of Jeff Ford. This comes as the Richard Desmond-owned company announced the promotion of Paul Dunthorne to chief operating officer.

Dunthorne was previously managing director of Portland TV, the adult channel operator owned by Desmond, and has been operations director at commercial broadcaster Channel 5 for the last two years.

He will continue to report to Paul Ashford, editorial director at Northern & Shell.

The new content executive will report to Dunthorne and is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

“Paul will be chief operating officer and a content person will come in underneath him, in charge of content and acquisitions. They’ve reworked the structure since buying Channel 5 and are looking for someone at the moment,” a Channel 5 spokesperson told TBI.

This comes two weeks after director of programmes Jeff Ford announced his departure. Ford will leave in December and told TBI that he was hoping to remain in television and would be looking for another job.