Jeff Ford

Consultant at Freelance

Speaker

Jeff Ford has worked in media for over 40 years with more than half that time employed at the highest network level within free and pay broadcasters. Jeff had his training at the BBC before moving into acquisitions within the ITV family at Anglia and Yorkshire Television. With the franchise changes in 1992, he moved to Carlton and then in 1995 to the Network Centre as Director of Acquisitions.

Jeff became part of Dawn Airey’s team at Channel 5 in 1997, where his movie and series acquisitions - including CSI and Home and Away- helped drive the channel to a 6.7% share. He was headhunted by Kevin Lygo to join Channel 4 in 2005 running acquisitions across both the main channel and digital platforms, while also managing Film 4.

In 2009, he returned to Channel 5 to run acquisitions and digital channels, becoming Director of Programmes when the company was purchased by Richard Desmond.

In 2013 he became Director of Content at Tv3 in Ireland then moved back to these shores to be UK MD at Fox Networks Group, commissioning and co-exec producing the channel’s first European production, Deep State, starring Mark Strong.

In 2018, Jeff decided to spend more time with his growing family - grandchildren-and work within the industry as a consultant.