Barbara Slater (sports producer)

Last updated

Barbara Slater
Barbara Slater at Nations & Regions Media Conference.jpg
Barbara Slater at the Nations & Regions Media Conference in 2012
Born
Barbara Jane Slater

(1959-05-10) 10 May 1959 (age 64)
Birmingham, England
NationalityBritish
OccupationSports producer
Years active1983-2024
Known forBBC Director of Sport

Barbara Jane Slater OBE (born 10 May 1959) [1] is a former English sports producer, who was BBC Director of Sport for 15 years before retiring in March 2024. She was also an ex-Olympic gymnast who represented Great Britain at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. [2]

Contents

Slater became the BBC's first female Director of Sport in April 2009, retiring from the role in March 2024 after overseeing fourteen different football World Cups and European Championships and seven Olympic Games. BBC director-general Tim Davie paid tribute to her career following the announcement of her retirement, saying: “Barbara has had an extraordinary career at the BBC, a pioneer, innovator and outstanding leader, she has kept the BBC at the forefront of sport for a generation." [3] Previous to her Director role, she had been the BBC's Head of Production and Head of General Sports for a number of years. [4] Slater was succeeded as Director of Sport by Alex Kay-Jelski. [5]

Biography

Slater was born into a sporting family: her father, Bill, was a professional footballer who played for England, won the Footballer of the Year award in 1960, and won three Football League titles with Wolverhampton Wanderers. Her uncle, J J Warr, played for the England cricket team.

Slater gained two degrees, at the universities of Birmingham and Oxford, before qualifying to be a PE teacher at Loughborough. Slater appeared in the gymnastics competition at the 1976 Summer Olympics and eventually earned 20 caps as an international gymnast. As a gymnast, she finished runner-up in the British Championships in the same year as her appearance at the Olympics. [1] In other sporting achievements, she reached national standard at diving and was a club-level squash player. [4]

Slater was first employed by the BBC in 1983, when she became a trainee Assistant Producer. She had previous experience in the TV industry starring in the 1977 BBC children's thriller series Out of Bounds, before working for ATV Sport. In 1984, she joined the BBC's sports division as an Assistant Producer. Slater worked her way up the corporation's hierarchy as a Producer, Senior Producer, and Executive Producer. [4] She eventually became head of sports production, and helped produce programmes for events such as The Open and Masters golf, the Commonwealth Games, the Grand National, Ascot and the Derby. [6]

In 2009, it was announced that Slater would become Director of Sport, taking over from Roger Mosey, and becoming the first woman to hold the position. [7] Mosey became the BBC Director of London 2012. [8] Slater has overseen the department's relocation to Salford [9] (BBC Sport is one of five departments that has been moved from London to Salford), [10] as well as the 2012 Summer Olympics, held in London. She has also presided over events such as the 2010 World Cup and 2010 Winter Olympics. [6] Barbara also, in 2013, won back the broadcasting rights of the FA Cup, in a major coup, ensuring live first-class football was available to licence fee payers. Speaking of her appointment, she said "I am thrilled to have this opportunity to lead BBC Sport at such an exciting and challenging time, that includes leading the division to its new home at the heart of BBC North and also ensuring BBC Sport plays its part in making the 2012 Games the success they deserve to be." [6]

During her time as Director of Sport, though, Slater has overseen the loss of many exclusive BBC Sport deals most notably that of full-time Formula One coverage from free to air broadcasting to a shared arrangement with Sky Sports lasting 2012 to 2015 with the BBC showing half the races live and the rest with highlights. The deal allowed Sky Sports to show every race live. Further scrutiny was shown with the BBC portion of a 2012–2018 deal being sold to Channel 4 for the 2016 to 2018 seasons to make savings. This is in addition the Grand National which saw Channel 4 gain the rights in March 2012; further dilution of the BBC sports portfolio (together with the loss of advert-free coverage) was announced by Slater in the guise of a sharing arrangement with ITV; [11] and in September 2015 she announced the imminent loss of yet more live coverage, this time of The Open Championship. [12]

Honours

Following the BBC's successful broadcast of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the biggest television event in British broadcasting history, Slater was awarded the Inspirational Woman prize at the Women in Film & TV Award that year. [2]

Slater was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to sports broadcasting. [13]

In 2021, she became the first woman to receive the IBC International Honour for Excellence in recognition of her career in sports broadcasting and for "leading the way in establishing women’s sport and bringing women to the fore in sports", also being cited as a champion of female broadcasters, pundits and commentators. [14]

Slater was named in the BBC Radio 4 Women's Hour Power List 2023: Women in Sport, in recognition of her broadcasting deals for women's sport across football, cricket, rugby and netball. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Radcliffe</span> British long-distance runner (born 1973)

Paula Jane Radcliffe MBE is a former British long-distance runner. She is a three-time winner of the London Marathon, three-time New York Marathon champion, the 2002 Chicago Marathon winner and the 2005 World Champion in the Marathon from Helsinki. She was previously the fastest female marathoner of all time, and held the Women's World Marathon Record with a time of 2:15:25 for 16 years from 2003 to 2019 when it was broken by Brigid Kosgei.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabby Logan</span> Welsh TV/radio presenter and rhythmic gymnast (born 1973)

Gabrielle Nicole Logan is a Welsh television and radio presenter, and a former rhythmic gymnast who represented Wales and Great Britain. She hosted Final Score for BBC Sport from 2009 until 2013. She has also presented live sports events for the BBC, including a revived episode of Superstars in December 2012 and the London Marathon since 2015. Since 2013, she has co-hosted Sports Personality of the Year for the BBC and she presented the second series of The Edge in 2015.

Roger Mosey is a British author, broadcaster, and current Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge. He was previously the Head of BBC Television News and Director of the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games coverage. His other positions have included that of Producer to the BBC's New York bureau and Editor of Today on BBC Radio 4. He is a trustee of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ebony Rainford-Brent</span> English cricketer

Ebony-Jewel Cora-Lee Camellia Rosamond Rainford-Brent is an English former cricketer who is now a commentator and Director of Women's Cricket at Surrey. She was the first black woman to play for England. She was also captain of the Surrey women's team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karren Brady</span> British businesswoman (born 1969)

Karren Rita Brady, Baroness Brady, is a British business executive and television personality. She is a former managing director of Birmingham City F.C. and current vice-chairman of West Ham United F.C., and an aide to Alan Sugar on The Apprentice. She is a Conservative member of the House of Lords and has been a Small Business Ambassador for the UK government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen Carney</span> English footballer and sports journalist

Karen Julia Carney is an English sports journalist and former professional footballer who played as a winger and midfielder. Carney has been a regular broadcaster for live football on Sky Sports, ITV and Amazon Prime, including Women's Super League and men's Premier League matches since 2019. She is also a sports columnist for BBC Sport, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Television, and The Guardian.

Celina Alexandra Hinchcliffe is an English television sports broadcaster. She has worked for BBC, Sky News and ITV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clare Balding</span> English broadcaster, journalist, TV presenter and author

Clare Victoria Balding is an English broadcast journalist and author. She currently presents for BBC Sport, Channel 4 and BT Sport and formerly presented the religious programme Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2. Balding was appointed as the 30th president of the Rugby Football League, serving a two-year term until December 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Rollason</span> British television presenter (1956–1999)

Helen Frances Rollason was a British sports journalist and television presenter, who in 1990 became the first female presenter of the BBC's sports programme Grandstand. She was also a regular presenter of Sport on Friday, and of the children's programme Newsround during the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Ennis-Hill</span> British former track and field athlete

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is a retired British track and field athlete from England, specialising in the heptathlon and 100 metres hurdles. As a competitor in heptathlon, she is the 2012 Olympic champion, a three-time world champion, and the 2010 European champion. She is also the 2010 World Indoor pentathlon champion. A member of the City of Sheffield & Dearne athletic club, she is a former British national record holder for the heptathlon. She is also a former British record holder in the 100 metres hurdles, the high jump and the indoor pentathlon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)</span> English footballer and sports commentator (born 1984)

Alexandra Virina Scott is an English sports presenter, pundit, and former professional footballer who mostly played as a right-back for Arsenal in the FA WSL. She made 140 appearances for the England national team and represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Rebecca Lowe is an English-American television presenter and anchor who works for NBC and NBC Sports. She previously worked at the BBC, Setanta Sports UK and ESPN UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eniola Aluko</span> British-Nigerian footballer (born 1987)

Eniola Aluko is a Nigerian-British football executive, football broadcaster and former professional player who played as a winger and striker. Aluko has been a regular broadcaster for live football on ITV, BT Sport, Amazon Prime and Fox Sports in the USA, including men's Premier League matches and Women's Super League since 2014. She was the first Sporting Director for Angel City FC of the American National women's soccer league and formerly held the position of Sporting Director at Aston Villa W.F.C. from January 2020 to June 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanette Kwakye</span> British sprinter

Jeanette Boahemaa Kwakye is a British broadcaster and retired sprinter.

Jacqueline Anne Oatley is an English broadcaster who works as a football commentator for Sky Sports and other broadcasters, calling games at the FIFA World Cup, Premier League, FA Women's Super League, UEFA Champions League, NWSL and UEFA international matches. She was also a sports presenter on Quest TV covering the English Football League, a podcast host for The Athletic, and is current anchor for ITV Sport's live darts coverage. In 2007, she became the first female commentator on the flagship BBC One football highlights programme Match of the Day, which she also presented once in March 2015.

Dame Susan Catherine Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Loughborough, is a British sports administrator who was chairman of UK Sport between 2003 and 2013.

Christina Tracy Boxer-Cahill is a retired female middle distance athlete from England. She represented Great Britain at three Olympic Games, in Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988 and trained at Aldershot, Farnham & District AC. In Seoul, she finished fourth in the 1500 metres final. She also won a gold medal in the 1500 m at the 1982 Commonwealth Games. In 1979, she became the first British woman in history to run the 800 metres in under two-minutes.

Reshmin Chowdhury is a British sports journalist broadcaster and event host. She currently lead presents live Premier League football on Talksport every Saturday morning in GameDay Exclusive. She presents live coverage of the Women's Super League and major women's football tournaments for BBC Sport. She has worked across all football coverage with BT Sport for 9 years, including most notably the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League the FA Cup and the UEFA Europa Conference League. She recently fronted the FIFA World Cup in Qatar for BeIN Sports, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games with Eurosport and Discovery Plus, and presented for ITV Sport during UEFA Euro 2020.

Deborah Jevans CBE is a British former tennis player and current sports executive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Kay-Jelski</span> British sports journalist

Alex Kay-Jelski is a British sports journalist, currently the BBC Director of Sport. He was previously the sports editor of The Times and the Daily Mail newspapers, and the editor-in-chief of The Athletic.

References

  1. 1 2 "Olympics: Barbara Slater". Archived from the original on 25 February 2010. Retrieved 2 March 2009.
  2. 1 2 "The 50 most influential women in sport: The full list". The Independent. 8 August 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  3. ↑ https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/barbara-slater-head-of-bbc-sport-announces-restirement-quit/
  4. 1 2 3 "Press Office, Biographies: Barbara Slater". BBC. June 2009. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  5. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/alex-kay-jelski-new-director-of-sport#:~:text=Charlotte%20Moore%2C%20BBC's%20Chief%20Content,the%20Director%20of%20BBC%20Sport.
  6. 1 2 3 Leigh Holmwood (26 February 2009). "BBC names Barbara Slater first female director of sport". The Guardian . London. Archived from the original on 28 February 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2009.
  7. ↑ "BBC appoints first female director of sport". The Daily Telegraph . London. 26 February 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2009.
  8. ↑ "Barbara Slater is BBC Sport director". Indiantelevision.com Team. 26 February 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2009.
  9. ↑ Angus Howarth (26 February 2009). "BBC scores a first as woman is named director of sport". The Scotsman . Retrieved 2 March 2009.
  10. ↑ "BBC Salford move gets green light". BBC. 31 May 2007. Retrieved 2 March 2009.
  11. ↑ "Six Nations: BBC & ITV to share broadcast rights from 2016". BBC Sport. 9 July 2015. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  12. ↑ "BBC coverage of The Open Championship". BBC. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  13. ↑ "No. 60895". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2014. p. b15.
  14. 1 2 https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/news/2023/march/loughborough-linked-women-named-in-bbc-power-list
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.