Danny Cohen (media executive)

Last updated

Danny Cohen
Born
Daniel Nicholas Cohen

(1974-01-15) 15 January 1974 (age 50) [1]
Westminster, London, England
Education City of London School
Alma mater Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
EmployerAccess Entertainment
Known forFormer director of BBC Television
TitleController of BBC Three (2007–2010)
Controller of BBC One (2010–2013)
Director of BBC Television (2013–2015)
President of Access Entertainment (2016–present)
Spouse
​
(m. 2012)​

Daniel Nicholas Cohen (born 15 January 1974) is a British television executive. He currently serves as President of Access Entertainment. He was previously the Director of BBC Television from 2013 to 2015. [2] Before that, he was the Controller of BBC One for three years, [3] the BBC's principal television channel in the United Kingdom. [4]

Contents

Education

Cohen was born in Westminster. [5] He attended a local Jewish primary school in north London, followed by the City of London School, an independent school for boys in the City of London. [6] Cohen read English literature at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford where he took a Double First. [6]

Career

Channel 4

Between 2000 and 2007, Cohen worked at Channel 4 and its youth service E4. His roles there included Head of Documentaries for Channel 4 and Head of E4.[ citation needed ]

Cohen's television commissions in this period included Skins , The Inbetweeners , Fonejacker , Supernanny and the documentary strand Cutting Edge . [7]

Controller of BBC Three

Between May 2007 and October 2010, Cohen was the Controller of BBC Three. During his tenureship of BBC Three, the channel increased its share of 16-34-year-old viewers by 58% and won Digital Channel of the Year at the Edinburgh International TV Festival in two out of three years – 2008 and 2010. [8] His BBC Three commissions included Our War, the BAFTA nominated Blood, Sweat and T-shirts , Britain's Missing Top Model , Stacey Dooley Investigates , and Being Human .

Alongside these commissions, he also acquired Summer Heights High from Australia[ citation needed ] and built a strong following for US animation Family Guy .[ citation needed ] He also revamped the hourly bulletins 60 Seconds adding a World News update.[ citation needed ]

In February 2008, The Times newspaper described Cohen as "the boy wonder of British television". [9] In January 2009, the Royal Television Society's magazine Television wrote an article about Cohen which posed the question of whether he would become Director General of the BBC. [10]

Controller of BBC One

As Controller of BBC One between 2010 and 2013,[ citation needed ] Cohen's commissions included: Call The Midwife, Happy Valley, Car-Share, Poldark, The Casual Vacancy, The Voice, Last Tango in Halifax, Eat Well For Less, and The Missing.[ citation needed ] During his time at the BBC, he led BBC One's coverage of the 2012 London Olympics.[ citation needed ]

Director of BBC Television

In May 2013, Cohen became Director of BBC Television, succeeding Roger Mosey, who had been temporarily in the post since August 2012. In this role Cohen oversaw the BBC's Television Networks (BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four) and BBC Productions – Europe's largest television production group. He also had responsibility for the BBC's feature film unit, BBC Films, and the BBC's content on its digital platform, BBC iPlayer. [7] In 2014, BBC Television was the most successful UK television network, and in the first quarter of 2015, the BBC's main network, BBC One, delivered its best start to the year in a decade with a prime-time audience share of 25.2%. [11]

In October 2015, Cohen announced that he was leaving the BBC. [12]

President of Access Entertainment

In May 2016, Cohen launched Access Entertainment with the businessman Len Blavatnik. Access Entertainment invests in content for theatre, film, television, gaming, the creator economy and the visual arts." [13] Under Cohen's leadership, Access has invested in the production company A24. Alongside Blavatnik, Cohen has been named as executive producer on several A24 films, including Beau is Afraid , The Iron Claw and the Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest . [14] He has also invested in creator economy firm Spotter, the mobile game developer Tripledot Studios, and the arts centre Lightroom. [15]

Personal life

Cohen is married to economist and author Noreena Hertz. They were married in 2012 at the Bevis Marks Synagogue in the City of London, in a ceremony conducted by Lord Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, and attended by guests including Rachel Weisz, Daniel Craig, Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi. They live in Primrose Hill, London. [16] [17] [18] [19]

A prominent figure in London's Jewish community, in an interview in 2014 Cohen said that he had "never felt so uncomfortable as a Jew in the UK". [20] Cohen said in 2016 that he was troubled by antisemitism in the Labour Party, stating "“If you are Jewish how can you vote for them? How could you? For me it would be like being a Muslim and voting for Donald Trump, how could you do it?". [21]

Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war, Cohen has been a regular contributor to The Telegraph , writing on antisemitism in the UK. In particular, he has criticized the BBC's coverage of the war, accusing the broadcaster of anti-Israel bias. [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Television</span> Television service of the British Broadcasting Corporation

BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 1932, although the start of its regular service of television broadcasts is dated to 2 November 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Yentob</span> British television executive and presenter (born 1947)

Alan Yentob, is a retired British television executive and presenter. He has held senior roles at the BBC including head of music and arts, controller of BBC1 and controller of BBC2. He stepped down as the BBC's creative director in December 2015, and was chairman of the board of trustees of the charity Kids Company from 2003 until its collapse in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Radio London</span> BBC Local Radio station for London

BBC Radio London is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater London.

This article outlines, in chronological order, the various controversies surrounding or involving the BBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracy-Ann Oberman</span> English actress, playwright, writer and narrator (born 1966)

Tracy-Ann Oberman is an English actress, playwright and narrator. She is known for roles including Chrissie Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and Valerie Lewis or "Auntie Val" in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner (2011–2020).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noreena Hertz</span> British economist

Noreena Hertz is an English academic, economist and bestselling author, who sits on the boards of Mattel, Warner Music Group and Workhuman. She has been Honorary Professor at the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London since 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reginald D. Hunter</span> UK based American comedian and actor

Reginald Darnell Hunter is an American stand-up comedian based in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Len Blavatnik</span> Ukrainian-born British-American billionaire businessperson and philanthropist (born 1957)

Sir Leonard Valentinovich Blavatnik is a Soviet/Ukrainian-born British-American businessman and philanthropist. In 2024, Forbes estimated his net worth at $32.1 billion, ranking him the 52nd-richest person in the world. In 2017, Blavatnik received a knighthood for services to philanthropy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert S. Wistrich</span> Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1945–2015)

Robert Solomon Wistrich was a scholar of antisemitism, considered one of the world's foremost authorities on antisemitism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Barlow</span> Motoring journalist from Northern Ireland

Jason Barlow is a motoring journalist and broadcaster from Northern Ireland.

Access Industries, Inc. is a United States–based privately held multinational investment company which was founded in 1986 by businessman Leonard "Len" Blavatnik. Access Industries' focus is in seven sectors: biotechnology, entertainment, external funds, global media, strategic equity, technology ventures, and real estate. The group invests in the United States, Europe, Israel, and Latin America. It is headquartered in New York, with offices in London and Mill Valley, California.

Danny Ben-Moshe is a documentary film maker and an associate professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. He has produced and directed several critically praised documentaries.

Stuart Neil Luke Murphy was the Chief Executive of the English National Opera (2018–2023). He was educated at St Mary's School, Menston and Clare College, Cambridge.

Zai Bennett is a television executive. He is the Managing Director of Content for Sky UK and Ireland, and former controller of BBC Three.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonny Gould</span> British radio and TV presenter

Jonny Gould is a British media presenter, sports journalist, and political commentator. He has formerly broadcast on Sky News, Smooth Radio, and Talksport among others. Gould has commented on antisemitism, conservative politics, and the state of Israel across a number of outlets including his own Jonny Gould’s Jewish State podcast.

Charlotte Alexandra Moore is a British television executive who is the BBC's Chief Content Officer. She was appointed to this role in September 2020, having been Director of Content since early 2016 when she assumed responsibility for all of the BBC's television channels after the controller posts were abolished. Moore was Controller of BBC One from 2013 to 2016, in the position of which she was reported to be in charge of a budget of more than £1 billion.

Sophie Henrietta Turner Laing, is a British businesswoman and media executive. She was chief executive officer of global content creator, producer and distributor Endemol Shine Group from December 2014 until July 2020. Prior to taking up that role, she held a number of senior positions at Sky in the UK, including their director of film and managing director of content. She previously worked for the BBC as the acting director of television and, along with Peter Orton and Jim Henson, was a founder of HIT Entertainment. In March 2022, she was named Chair of National Film and Television School.

Michael Adam Foster is a British former talent agent and politician. He was Chris Evans' agent and has run several talent agencies. He was a Labour donor and Parliamentary candidate, but he left the party after a series of disputes with leader Jeremy Corbyn.

References

  1. ↑ Plunkett, John (15 October 2015). "Danny Cohen: the political animal who got rid of Jeremy Clarkson". The Guardian . Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  2. ↑ "Danny Cohen named as new BBC director of television", BBC News, 23 April 2013
  3. ↑ "BBC iPlayer – BBC One" . Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "BBC – Press Office – BBC Three Winter/Spring 2008: Danny Cohen" . Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  5. ↑ Plunkett, John (16 October 2015). "Danny Cohen: the political animal who got rid of Jeremy Clarkson". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  6. 1 2 "Action station: the controller who is not ready to grow old just yet". The Independent. 26 January 2009. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  7. 1 2 "BBC – Danny Cohen, director, TV – Inside the BBC". BBC. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  8. ↑ "Entertainment – BBC channels win festival awards". 23 August 2008. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  9. ↑ Sabbagh, Dan. "BBC Three pins relaunch hopes on integration of TV and web". The Times . Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  10. ↑ "Royal Television Society". Archived from the original on 3 July 2009. Retrieved 12 April 2009.
  11. ↑ Shawley, Pippa (8 April 2015). "BBC One reports strongest first quarter in a decade". Royal Television Society . Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  12. ↑ "Danny Cohen to leave the BBC". BBC Media Centre. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  13. ↑ "Former BBC TV Boss Danny Cohen Joins Len Blavatnik to Launch Access Entertainment". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  14. ↑ Balaga, Marta (17 March 2023). "Access Entertainment Invests in Israeli Series 'Red Skies,' Co-Created by 'Euphoria's' Ron Leshem (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  15. ↑ Shah, Oliver (1 January 2022). "How start-up Spotter is making a mint from YouTubers like MrBeast with ex-BBC man Danny Cohen". The Times . Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  16. ↑ "Danny Cohen to be BBC's director of television". www.thejc.com. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  17. ↑ Sweney, Mark (20 May 2016). "ITV News' Noreena Hertz: 'I know I have a lot to learn'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  18. ↑ "Noreena Hertz". Jewish Lives Project. Retrieved 21 March 2019.[ permanent dead link ]
  19. ↑ Plunkett, John (16 October 2015). "Danny Cohen: the political animal who got rid of Jeremy Clarkson". The Guardian .
  20. ↑ Burrell, Ian (22 December 2014). "BBC director: Rising UK antisemitism makes me more uncomfortable than ever". The Independent . Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  21. ↑ Rigby, Elizabeth (16 April 2016). "How can Jews vote for Corbyn, asks former BBC chief". The Times . Retrieved 16 April 2016.(subscription required)
  22. ↑ Rose, David (15 February 2024). "Why I had to come out against the BBC, former corporation boss reveals". The Jewish Chronicle .
  23. ↑ "Ex-BBC chief: Network's Arabic service rife with anti-Israel bias, support for terror". The Times of Israel . 21 May 2024.
  24. ↑ Pope, Felix (20 November 2023). "BBC is 'institutionally antisemitic', says corporation's former director of television". The Jewish Chronicle .
  25. ↑ Ravindran, Manori (23 May 2024). "Analysis: why no one knows how to talk about Israel and Gaza". Broadcast .
  26. ↑ Rufo, Yasmin (1 August 2024). "TV industry letter accuses BBC of antisemitism". BBC News . Retrieved 9 August 2024.
Media offices
Preceded by Controller of BBC Three
2007–2010		Succeeded by
Preceded by Controller of BBC One
2010–2013		Succeeded by
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.