ITN Appoints Managing Director And Chief Creative Officer For ITN Productions

ITN has appointed Mark Browning to the role of Managing Director, ITN Productions and Steve Carsey as Chief Creative Officer, ITN Productions. Mark is currently Commercial Director of the division and Steve joins from September Films where he is Creative Director, Entertainment.

These new appointments complete the management line-up and builds on the existing strengths of the team at ITN Productions, which already boasts Philip Armstrong-Dampier, Head of Factual, Factual Entertainment & Corporate and Emma Read, Creative Director, Factual, Features & Factual Entertainment.

ITN Productions is the new content creation business formed by ITN to produce multi-platform factual, entertainment, news and corporate production for its wide customer base outside of ITN's core TV news contracts. The business produces long and short-form content for clients such as Channel 4, ITV, Telegraph Media Group, National Geographic, Teachers TV, Discovery, YouTube, Virgin Media and Vodafone. It also offers ITN's mix of studios for hire including the largest VR studio in Europe.

Reporting into John Hardie, CEO of ITN, Mark will be responsible for running the overall business and continue to oversee commercial strategy in the division. Steve will report into Mark and be responsible for creative strategy and talent management, running production and product development. He will also advise other ITN businesses on creative strategy.

Mark joined ITN from Heart in January 2009 as Commercial Director for multimedia division ITN On which has since merged into ITN Productions. He has been instrumental in developing a number of new business opportunities for the company including launching the Premium News Network on Mail Online and Midland News Association websites, celebrity gossip show The Fix on 4Music and Celebs 24/7 - a multiplatform offering on Living TV. Prior to joining ITN, Mark spent seven years at Heart, were he led the radio station to the number one slot in London, a forerunner to it becoming the UK's biggest commercial radio brand.

During his career in television, Steve has produced, developed and been instrumental in the launch of a wide range of popular entertainment, factual and event programming for UK and international broadcasters including Robot Wars (BBC), Britain's Worst Driver (Five), The Match (Sky One), the National Lottery draws (BBC) and Paradise Hotel (Fox). Prior to his role at September Films, Steve worked as Creative Director of Steadfast Television, where he was part of the management team which helped grow the start-up into a factual production powerhouse responsible for shows such as Last Chance Driving School (ITV) and Championship Gaming Series (Sky One). He was previously Director of Programmes at Endemol-owned Initial, where he contributed to the expansion of the producer's output across all genres.

Philip has produced hundreds of hours of critically acclaimed programming including Diana: The witnesses in the Tunnel and President Ahmadinejad's Alternative Christmas Message, both for Channel 4. He has also won a number of awards for programmes delivered during his time at ITN including Pandamonium (Animal Planet) and Dying to be Apart (Channel 4). Emma recently joined from Sky One where she was Commissioning Editor of Factual & Features, commissioning a number of ground-breaking programmes such as Brainiac: Science Abuse and Big Ron Manager.

John Hardie, Chief Executive Officer of ITN, said: 'I'm delighted that Mark and Steve are taking up these important roles at ITN Productions. We now have a strong and creative management team in place to drive the business forward, helping to make ITN Productions into a one-stop-shop for innovative programming solutions.'

Mark Browning, Managing Director, ITN Productions, said: 'ITN Productions marks a new era for ITN bringing together all of our strengths in content creation and exploitation into one place. This new business will deliver 360 degree commissions across TV, online and mobile from one single production unit."

Steve Carsey, Chief Creative Officer, ITN Productions added: 'ITN Productions has such a fantastic reputation and client base - and as one of the UK's few genuinely cross platform content owners and producers, the future opportunities are huge. I'm really looking forward to working with such a talented team and creating some compelling content and brands for existing and new customers.'

Mark begins his new role immediately and Steve joins ITN Productions next month.

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