BBC iPlayer content head exits

Victoria Jaye, BBC iPlayer’s head of TV content, has decided to leave the UK’s pubcaster.

Jaye will continue to pull together the digital strategy across BBC content and remain in the Corporation until March 2018.

She played a leading role in the BBC’s digital commissioning strategy for over a decade. However, she is leaving after the BBC decided to stop commissioning directly for the iPlayer earlier this year.

A BBC spokesman said that the broadcaster was looking at the structure of the digital team and expected to make a further announcement in due course.

Jaye is known for leading the 2014 creative relaunch of iPlayer, which extended the service for the first time beyond catch-up, releasing whole BBC TV series as box sets ahead of broadcast and commissioning original programming.

These included Adam Curtis’ BAFTA-nominated films Hypernormalisation and Bitter Lake, Frankie Boyle’s Political Autopsies, Frank Skinner’s On Demand With... and cult films The Rack Pack, Simon Amstell’s Carnage and Charlie Lyne’s Fear Itself.

Jaye’s introduction of the iPlayer pilots scheme and original short form series unearthed hit shows including People Just Do Nothing and Impractical Jokers, and provided an innovation platform for new British talent such as Vinay Patel, Guz Khan and Grace Victory.

In addition, through collaborations with the Tate, V&A and the National Portrait Gallery, Jaye brought blockbuster art exhibitions to iPlayer in Private View, presented by musicians and models including Goldie, Tinie Tempah, Neelam Gill and Liane La Havas.

Jay’s career at the BBC has spanned commissioning, production and channel management.

She was editor of BBC Three when it first launched in 2003 and most recently was seconded to BBC Worldwide as editorial director, where her work included advising on new SVOD service BritBox USA, a joint venture between the BBC and ITV.