ITV recruits Hat Trick co-founder for production arm

ITV has recruited Hat Trick co-founder Denise O'Donoghue to run the commercial side of ITV Studios to help drive a "creative renewal" at its production business. O'Donoghue, who along with Hat Trick co-founder Jimmy Mulville turned the company into one of the UK's leading independent producers before leaving in early 2006 , joins former Channel 4 director of television Kevin Lygo in the senior management team at ITV Studios. Lygo arrived in early August as managing director of ITV Studios. O'Donoghue is to be managing director of its UK business, responsible for production and rights management and business affairs. This division of labour suggests Lygo will look after the creative side. In his first Channel 4 stint as head of entertainment he commissioned shows including Smack the Pony, The 11 O'Clock Show and Da Ali G Show; his later tenure as the broadcaster's programming director encompassed Skins, Come Dine With Me, The Inbetweeners, Deal or No Deal, Jamie's School Dinners and Shameless. However, Lygo has not had to pitch a programme idea to commissioning executives since he left the BBC 13 years ago. O'Donoghue ran Hat Trick with Mulville for nearly 20 years, a period during which the company made shows including Drop the Dead Donkey, Have I Got News for You, Father Ted, Room 101 and The Kumars at No 42. She left in January 2006, two years after pocketing a cool £11.27m selling half her Hat Trick stake to private equity firm Kleinwort Benson. However, the task facing Lygo and O'Donoghue was thrown into stark relief on Tuesday in the broadcaster's trading update on the first nine months of 2010. ITV Studios' revenue from commissions from other broadcasters was down 10% year on year to £205m. This is partly down to the axing of I'm a Celebrity in the US and Germany and the latest series of Hell's Kitchen USA being delayed by Fox. On a brighter note, money raised from internal revenues from making shows for ITV's own channels went up from £176m to £181m. However, if Emmerdale and Coronation Street are stripped out, only about 16% of ITV's output is made in-house. That figure was revealed by ITV chief executive Adam Crozier in September. Lygo, who joined ITV in early August, has been given the task of leading a "creative renewal" of the broadcaster's production business by Crozier and chairman Archie Norman. There is talk of it growing by acquisition, although with consolidation of the UK independent production sector over the past five years, there are relatively slim pickings left among small and medium-sized companies. Just this week NBC Universal picked off another UK indie, buying the Charlotte Church Show producer Monkey Kingdom . That leaves ITV with little option but to look at buying one of the so-called "super indies" that have come to dominate the UK independent production sector in the past decade . However, most of these are part of larger media companies. ITV's one previous move into buying UK production assets came three years ago when it bought Coach Trip and Egghead producers 12 Yard for £26m. This week 12 Yard co-founder David Young walked away from the business. A drain of creative talent has been one of the fundamental problems with ITV Studios itself in recent years, with senior producers leaving to seek their fortune in the independent production sector. In the heady days of the 1980s and 1990s, LWT and Granada were at their height and their shows ruled Saturday nights and prime time. Granada even made one of the BBC's biggest comedy hits, The Royle Family, while LWT had the stars of the day Cilla Black and Michael Barrymore tied in on contracts. But as the independent production sector flourished following regulatory changes in the late 1990s and beyond, programme-makers in drama and entertainment began to leave, tempted away by promises of equity. On-screen talent is also increasingly looking to work through their own production companies. The broadcaster has also been through several rounds of job cuts as it cut costs in the past couple of years, with ITV Studios taking its share of the pain. Senior ITV Studios executives who have departed for the independent sector since 2007 include drama controller Michele Buck (Mammoth Screen), drama and comedy controller Andy Harries (Left Bank Pictures), director of factual and entertainment Jim Allen (RDF Media) and controller of factual Natalka Znak (also RDF). • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".