Scott Taunton | |
---|---|
Born | 1971 Canberra, Australia |
Education | Canberra High School |
Alma mater | Lake Ginninderra College |
Occupation | Chief executive of Wireless Group |
Years active | 1992–present [1] |
Employer | News UK |
Scott Taunton (born 1971) [1] is an Australian businessman who has been the chief executive of the Wireless Group since November 2016. [2] He is also the EVP and President of Broadcasting of News UK. [3]
Taunton began his career as an IT training manager at the Australian Government's Department of Health in 1992. [1] He later moved to Belfast, where he co-founded the internet service provider DNA Internet in 1995. He was general manager of DNA Internet until March 2000, when the company was acquired by Northern Ireland-based broadcaster UTV Media. [4] He was later appointed chief executive of UTV Radio following its acquisition by UTV Media in June 2005. [4] In August 2014, he became UTV's chief operating officer. [5] UTV Media was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News UK in February 2016 and changed its name to Wireless Group, [6] with Taunton continuing as COO. [7]
As Wireless's chief operating officer, Taunton oversaw the relaunch of Virgin Radio in March 2016, [8] before being promoted to chief executive eight months later. [9] In June 2020, with Taunton at the helm, another talk radio station was launched, Times Radio. [10] Taunton said of the station, "Since Wireless joined the News UK family, we have been working more and more collaboratively with The Times , lending our radio and podcasting expertise to develop an audio strategy for one of the world's pre-eminent newsbrands." [11]
In April 2021, News UK revealed that its planned television channel had been scrapped, with new plans to launch a streaming service instead. [12] David Rhodes, who was due to spearhead the project, departed as chief executive of News UK Broadcasting and was replaced by Taunton. [13] On 16 September 2021, it was announced that News UK had reversed their decision and would launch its news channel, talkTV, in 2022. According to Taunton, "talkTV will provide a rich mix of entertaining and informative shows that no other service provides." [14]
On 13 October 2014, Taunton became engaged to Georgia Mcguffie. [15]