Netflix exec returns to ABC Australia as chief content officer

Chris Oliver-Taylor

Australian broadcaster ABC has appointed Netflix exec Chris Oliver-Taylor to the newly created role of chief content officer.

Reporting to managing director David Anderson, Oliver-Taylor will take charge of the new content division created by the merger of the current entertainment and specialist and regional and local divisions.

Oliver-Taylor currently serves as Netflix’s director of production for Australia and New Zealand. He will take up his new post at ABC later this month ahead of the relaunched content division on 1 July.

The exec returns to ABC, which he first joined in 2005, before going on to serve as MD of Matchbox Pictures, including during its acquisition by NBCUniversal. He was named as CEO of Fremantle Asia Pacific in 2018, before joining Netflix in 2021

Anderson praised Oliver-Taylor as “one of the most experienced, both locally and internationally, content leaders in the industry with a well-honed sense of audience expectations and creative trends across platforms and technologies.”

He added that the new chief content officer role required “leadership across all content platforms – screen, audio and digital – and… the right creative approach to support the work of all our content teams and deliver for the Australian public.”

Jennifer Collins, who has served as acting director of entertainment and specialist for the past nine months, will remain in the role until 1 July, reporting to Oliver-Taylor when he joins later this month.

ABC said Collins is expected to then move into “a significant senior content role” in the newly merged content division.