Roly Keating
Roland "Roly" Francis Kester Keating (born 5 August 1961) is Chief Executive of the British Library. He took up his post in September 2012. He was previously Director of Archive Content for the BBC.[1][2] He was announced as chief executive designate of the British Library in May 2012, to succeed Lynne Brindley DBE.[3]
Life and career
Keating was educated at Westminster School, an independent school for boys in London, and then read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford.
He joined the BBC in 1983. He was a producer and director for the Arts and Music department, making programmes for Omnibus, Bookmark (1992-7) and Arena. He was a producer and later became editor of The Late Show. In 1997, he became head of programming for UKTV, partly owned by the BBC. In 1999, he became the BBC Controller of Digital Channels. In 2000, he also took on the responsibility of Controller of Arts Commissioning. He became the Controller of digital television station BBC Four in December 2001, masterminding its launch on 2 March 2002. In 2003, he was also joint leader of the BBC's Charter Review project for six months. He became the channel controller for BBC Two in June 2004[4] a position he held until 2008. He was appointed temporary controller of BBC One following Peter Fincham's resignation[5] on 5 October 2007.
While Controller, he said that he wanted to see BBC Two be the first mainstream British TV channel to be available on broadband.[6] His decision to screen the Jerry Springer Opera on 8 January 2005 forced him to go into hiding and he was given security protection.[7]
References
- ↑ BBC Press Office: Roly Keating appointed as Director of Archive Content
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ John Plunkett "BBC archive director to move to British Library", The Guardian, 11 May 2012
- ↑ BBC Press Office: Roly Keating named new Controller of BBC TWO
- ↑ BBC Press Office: Peter Fincham resigns as Controller, BBC One
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ [2]
External links
| Media offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New creation | Controller of BBC Four 2002–2004 |
Succeeded by Janice Hadlow |
| Preceded by | Controller of BBC Two 2004–2008 |
|
| New title | Director of Archive Content, BBC 2008-2012 |
Incumbent |
