Jane Lighting

Jane Lighting
Born	Jane Elizabeth Stuart Lighting December 1956
Nationality	British
Occupation	Television executive, company director
Company	Five
Title	Chief Executive, Five (2003 to 2008)

Jane Elizabeth Stuart Lighting (born December 1956) is a British television executive who was chief executive of Five, the United Kingdom's fifth terrestrial television channel, from April 2003 to May 2008. Before that, Lighting spent most of her career in television programme distribution, founding the sales and marketing company Minotaur International in 1995 and then rising through the pay television group Flextech after it bought Minotaur in 1999.

At the channel, then owned by RTL Group and United Business Media, Lighting succeeded Dawn Airey. Lighting's five years in charge covered the broadcaster's move from a single analogue channel to a small family of digital services: Lighting oversaw the launch of the free-to-air channels Five Life and Five US in October 2006, a video-on-demand service built around the CSI franchise, and the acquisition of the Australian soap opera Neighbours from the BBC. Lighting's tenure also included the 2007 Brainteaser phone-in affair, for which the regulator Ofcom fined the broadcaster £300,000.

Lighting resigned in May 2008 after RTL Group recruited Airey back from ITV as chairman and chief executive of the channel. In her resignation statement Lighting said that her "vision for Five differs to that of RTL Group". RTL Group's chief executive, Gerhard Zeiler, said that Lighting had "led the broadcaster into profitability, kept the audience share stable and increased Five's share of advertising revenues".

After leaving the broadcaster, Lighting was a non-executive director of the newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror (later Reach plc) from 2008 to 2015, serving as its senior independent director from 2014; of the bookmaker Paddy Power from 2009; and of the estate agency group Countrywide plc from 2014 to 2019. Lighting chaired the Royal Television Society from 2006 to 2007, and in 2007 Trinity Mirror described her as a Fellow of both the Royal Television Society and the Royal Society of Arts. Companies House records list no current company directorships for her as of October 2026.

Early life and education

Companies House records give Lighting's date of birth as December 1956 and her nationality as British. Published sources retrieved for this article do not document her family background or formal education.

Career

Early career in programme distribution

Lighting began her career at Crown Cassette Communications, a distribution business, and then worked at Video Arts, a company that made training films. By 1992 Lighting was a director of Southern Star Sales (UK) Limited, a post she held until May 12, 1995, according to Companies House.

On May 22, 1995, Lighting became a director of Minotaur International Limited, the marketing and sales company she founded that year. Minotaur distributed television programmes internationally and was involved in co-production. Lighting was also a director of the British Television Distributors Association, the trade body for programme sellers, from September 9, 1998, to December 19, 2000.

Flextech, 1999 to 2003

On December 1, 1999, Flextech, the pay television group controlled by the cable operator Telewest, announced that it had agreed to buy Minotaur. Adam Singer, Flextech's chairman and chief executive, said the purchase would give the group "skills in co-production" and improve its relationships with independent producers, and that combining Flextech's cable and satellite distribution arm with Minotaur's international distribution business would "create fresh rights streams". On completion of the deal Lighting, as Minotaur's founder and managing director, became chief operating officer of television and content at Flextech, reporting to Brent Harman, who was to become group managing director.

By November 2001 Lighting was Flextech's managing director of broadcast and TV. That month the company promoted its director of programmes, Lisa Opie, to executive vice president of Flextech channels, and Lighting took on day-to-day responsibility for the commercial side of the channels business. Flextech's channels at the time included Living TV and Bravo.

In 2002 Lighting joined the boards of several companies connected with Flextech's business. She became a director of Interactive Digital Sales Limited, Flextech's advertising sales company, on February 14, 2002, and on September 4, 2002, she became a director of UKTV Media Limited, UK Gold Holdings Limited and UK Channel Management Limited, entities linked to UKTV, Flextech's channel joint venture with BBC Worldwide. Lighting left all of these boards, and that of Minotaur, on February 28, 2003. By the time Five began its search for a new chief executive, Lighting was head of Flextech, which the trade press described as Telewest's pay television business.

Appointment at Five

Dawn Airey, the channel's chief executive since 2000, left in September 2002 to become managing director of Sky Networks at BSkyB, and the deputy chief executive, Nick Milligan, ran the channel on an acting basis. In January 2003 The Observer reported that Lighting, whom it described as a protégée of Telewest's former chief executive Adam Singer, had emerged as the broadcaster's preferred candidate. Lighting had a first interview shortly before Christmas 2002, and the chief executive of NTL, Stephen Carter, was also reported to have been interviewed.

The channel confirmed Lighting's appointment on February 6, 2003. The announcement was made by United Business Media, which then owned about 35 percent of the channel, although the decision was reported to have been taken by Didier Bellens, chief executive of RTL Group, which held the remaining stake. In the year before Lighting arrived, the channel's share of the audience had risen from 5.9 percent to 6.5 percent and its share of television advertising revenue from 6.4 percent to 7.5 percent. On her appointment Lighting said: "I am excited to be joining Five at this pivotal point in its development. Dawn Airey, Nick Milligan and the team managed one of the most successful launches in terrestrial TV history and have built a solid platform for future growth. My job will be to ensure that we keep moving to the next level and beyond as the competition grows."

Lighting took up the post in April 2003 and joined the board of Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited on May 8, 2003. Lisa Opie, who had been acting managing director of Flextech after Lighting's departure, was confirmed in that role in May 2003.

Chief executive of Five, 2003 to 2005

Industry figures for the first quarter of 2003 showed the channel's overall share of viewing rising to 6.4 percent. In July 2003 the director of programmes, Kevin Lygo, announced that he was returning to Channel 4 as its director of television. Lighting said it was "flattering that when Channel 4 is looking for a new director of television they come to Five once again", and Lighting took over operational management of the programming team while a successor was found. Before leaving, Lygo removed the last of the softcore adult content from the schedule, completing a move away from what Airey had once called the channel's mainstays of "football, films and fornication".

Presenting the autumn 2003 schedule, which featured a fly-on-the-wall series about the boxer Chris Eubank and the former BBC Two show Robot Wars, Lighting said the channel was "the only terrestrial channel to have increased its audience year on year". At the same time Lighting added strategy to the responsibilities of the director of marketing, David Pullan, asking him to look for revenue sources outside advertising.

Early in 2004 Lighting lost two of the senior executives she had inherited. In February 2004 BSkyB hired Milligan to run its advertising sales operation; Lighting called him "one of its founding directors and architects of its success". Lighting replaced him in March 2004 by promoting two members of the original sales team: Mark White became executive director of sales, reporting directly to Lighting, and Kelly Williams became sales director under White. In April 2004 Pullan left to run the men's magazine FHM at Emap; Lighting credited him with the 2002 rebranding of Channel 5 as Five.

During 2004 the broadcaster's future ownership was openly debated. RTL said in March 2004 that the channel needed closer links with commercial rivals to survive in a multichannel market, and the channel held exploratory talks with Channel 4 about a merger that would have combined their advertising sales operations. Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August 2004, Lighting said: "There are a number of options that both Channel 4 and Five are exploring. We are in a situation where discussions have taken place, but the reality is that nothing is as far thought through as people would imagine." Channel 4 withdrew from the talks in November 2004, after which the press reported that the channel's shareholders were considering a merger with Lighting's former employer, Flextech. Neither merger took place.

At the same festival Lighting defended the purchase of Joey, the spin-off from Friends, acquired for a reported £500,000 an episode. Lighting said the show would "form part of the long-term strategy that Five stands for fun" and would anchor a block of comedy programming, but conceded that it would probably not outperform CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which had cost a fraction of the price and regularly drew more than three million viewers.

In January 2005 the broadcaster said it was considering a children's channel based on its Milkshake! pre-school strand as one of several options under review by Lighting. In March 2005 Lighting recruited Jane Scott, the BBC's controller of television marketing, as director of marketing and a member of its executive board.

RTL takes full ownership

On July 20, 2005, RTL Group agreed to buy United Business Media's remaining 35.4 percent of the channel for £247.6 million, taking full ownership of the channel. Lighting said the deal would "help us to plan for our future with more certainty" and described it as "a whole hearted vote of confidence from our shareholder RTL". In November 2005 the broadcaster announced a strategic investment in Top Up TV, a pay television service on the Freeview platform, which gave it a route to launch further free-to-air channels. Lighting said further details would follow in the new year. At that point the channel was the only UK terrestrial broadcaster without sister channels and had been criticised for falling behind its rivals in digital television.

Digital channels and on-demand, 2006

In June 2006 the channel announced that it would launch two channels on Freeview that autumn, Five US and Five Life, using capacity bought from Top Up TV and funding from RTL. Five US was to carry American drama, sport, films and youth programming, while Five Life was aimed mainly at women and extended the Milkshake! strand. Lighting called the plan "the most important development in Five's history since our launch more than nine years ago".

In July 2006 the broadcaster licensed video-on-demand and second-window rights to the three CSI series from Alliance Atlantis, as part of a deal covering the whole of RTL Group. The resulting service, Five Download, built with BT Media and Broadcast, opened in October 2006 and offered new episodes of CSI: Miami for download a week before broadcast. Lighting described it as "an important part of Five's digital media strategy". Five Life and Five US went on air on October 15 and October 16, 2006, backed by what the company said was its largest marketing campaign since 1997.

At the end of October 2006 the director of programmes, Dan Chambers, left by mutual agreement and Lighting brought in Lisa Opie, her former Flextech colleague, as managing director of content. Lighting said: "we now need a creative director with the skills and expertise to run a portfolio of channels. I worked with Lisa during my time at Flextech and I know that she has the expertise and ability to take Five into the next phase of its digital strategy." The same report noted that the main channel's weekly reach, daily reach and share of viewing had dipped over the previous year, and that its revenue fell 5.5 percent in September 2006. In September 2006, when Charles Allen announced his departure as chief executive of ITV, press reports named Lighting among the possible candidates to succeed him.

Five, 2007 to 2008

In May 2007 Lighting's channel won the rights to Neighbours from FremantleMedia after the BBC withdrew from bidding, saying that the price would have amounted to about £300 million over the eight-year contract. The soap, shown on BBC One for 21 years, was to move to the main channel and Five Life from 2008. Lighting called it "a household brand which delivers strong audiences daily". In July 2007 the broadcaster announced timeshifted "+1" versions of Five Life and Five US on Sky.

Lighting's final full year was dominated by the industry-wide scandal over premium-rate phone-in competitions (see Controversies) and by pressure on the channel's value. In August 2007 RTL Group took a €123 million (£61 million) impairment on the carrying value of the channel, citing "strong competition and the increasing fragmentation of the UK market". In February 2008 Lighting told The Times that "Five is doing better than a lot of people think it is. We grew faster than the market last year and we think we can do the same again this year." Neighbours began on the channel that month.

Departure from Five

On April 30, 2008, Dawn Airey left her post as managing director of ITV's global content division, after eight months, to join RTL Group in a senior role that included becoming the channel's chairman. On May 1, 2008, Lighting announced that she would step down the following day, and RTL confirmed Airey as chief executive and chairman. Lighting said:

Mark White, the executive director of sales Lighting had promoted in 2004, became interim chief executive. Lisa Opie resigned the next day, saying that "Jane's departure and the arrival of Dawn Airey as chairman of Five means that it is time for a change". Lighting's directorship of Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited ended on May 13, 2008. Airey took up the chief executive's post in October 2008, six months earlier than originally expected.

Non-executive career, 2008 to 2019

Trinity Mirror announced on November 26, 2007, while Lighting was still at the broadcaster, that she would join its board as a non-executive director on January 2, 2008. Lighting became the newspaper group's senior independent director in 2014 and sat on its audit and risk, remuneration and nomination committees. Lighting stepped down on December 27, 2015, and was succeeded as senior independent director by Helen Stevenson. The chairman, David Grigson, thanked Lighting "particularly for her counsel as Senior Independent Director". Trinity Mirror later renamed itself Reach plc.

At the end of August 2009 the Irish bookmaker Paddy Power appointed Lighting a non-executive director; City A.M. reported that the company hoped to draw on her media experience to grow its retail and online betting business. Lighting had left that board by June 2014.

On June 9, 2014, Countrywide plc, the UK estate agency and property services group, appointed Lighting a non-executive director with immediate effect. Its interim chairman, David Watson, said Lighting brought "considerable experience with her, particularly in the commercial area". In June 2019 Countrywide announced that Lighting would retire from the board after its meeting on June 26, 2019. The executive chairman, Peter Long, thanked her "for her dedicated service to the Board and its committees since joining Countrywide in 2014". Companies House records her resignation on that date.

Leadership and management style

Lighting's appointments as chief executive tended to favour internal promotion and people she had worked with before. When Milligan left in 2004 Lighting replaced him with two members of the channel's launch sales team rather than an outside hire, saying they had "made a huge contribution to our sales performance over the past eight years". When Lighting restructured programming in 2006 she replaced the director of programmes with Opie, whom she had worked with at Flextech, and explained the change as a need for "a creative director with the skills and expertise to run a portfolio of channels" rather than a single channel. Lighting also recruited externally for specialist roles, such as Jane Scott from the BBC in 2005.

Lighting was hands-on with programming at times. After Lygo's departure in 2003 Lighting ran the programming team herself until a replacement was appointed. Lighting's public statements framed the channel's strategy around a few programme areas where the channel had what she called "an acknowledged track record", particularly American drama and comedy, and she described the CSI rights as cementing the channel's reputation as a home of US programming.

On regulation Lighting spoke for commercial broadcasters. When Ofcom announced restrictions on advertising foods high in fat, salt and sugar around children's programming in November 2006, Lighting called the measures "even more draconian than the stringent measures that Ofcom originally proposed" and said that "the long term future of UK produced children's programming outside the BBC is bleak".

Major deals and strategic decisions

• Minotaur International sale (1999). Lighting sold the distribution company she had founded to Flextech, which used it to expand into programme rights and co-production.
• Joey acquisition (2004). Under Lighting the channel bought the Friends spin-off for a reported £500,000 an episode as the centrepiece of a comedy block.
• Merger talks (2004). Lighting's channel held exploratory talks with Channel 4, which ended without agreement in November 2004; a combination with Flextech was then discussed in the press but did not happen.
• Change of ownership (2005). RTL Group bought out United Business Media's 35.4 percent for £247.6 million, becoming the channel's sole shareholder.
• Top Up TV investment (2005). The broadcaster took a strategic stake in Top Up TV and used capacity bought from it to launch new channels on Freeview.
• Five Life and Five US (2006). The broadcaster's first digital channels, announced by Lighting in June 2006, launched in October 2006, followed by "+1" timeshifted versions in 2007.
• Five Download (2006). A broadband download service for the CSI franchise, developed with BT and Alliance Atlantis, which let viewers watch a downloaded episode for 14 days.
• Neighbours (2007). Lighting's channel took the soap from the BBC in a contract the BBC valued at about £300 million over eight years.

Financial and market performance

During Lighting's tenure the channel's results were reported by its owner, RTL Group, rather than published separately. For 2004, Lighting's second year, RTL reported that the channel's pre-tax profit had doubled to €18 million and its revenue had risen 10.4 percent to €276 million, with audience share up 0.1 points to 6.7 percent. When RTL bought out United Business Media in July 2005, the most recent full-year figures showed revenue of £290 million and an operating profit of £19 million, the first year in which the channel had reported an operating profit. In the first half of 2005 revenue rose 13.2 percent to €146 million and pre-tax profit rose from €6 million to €16 million, which RTL called a "record performance".

Performance weakened after the digital launches. RTL's €123 million impairment of the channel in August 2007 reflected higher competition and fragmentation of the UK audience. For 2007, Lighting's last full year, the broadcaster generated £314 million in advertising revenue, up 8.2 percent from £290.3 million in 2006, helped by the new digital channels, and posted an underlying profit of £2 million after investing £15 million in the channel launches. The broadcaster was then valued at £510 million. In the first half of 2008, after Lighting's departure, RTL reported that the channel's income fell 12.4 percent to €212 million, which it attributed to the strength of the euro against the pound, while the combined audience share of Five, Fiver and Five US rose from 6.3 percent to 6.4 percent.

Board memberships and outside roles

Companies House lists the following directorships among Lighting's appointments, all of which had ended by June 2019:

• Southern Star Sales (UK) Limited, director, before 1992 to May 12, 1995
• Minotaur International Limited, director, May 22, 1995, to February 28, 2003
• British Television Distributors Association, director, September 9, 1998, to December 19, 2000
• National Film and Television School, director, December 12, 2001, to October 22, 2007. Trinity Mirror described Lighting in 2007 as having been a governor of the school until recently.
• UKTV Media Limited, UK Gold Holdings Limited and UK Channel Management Limited, director, September 4, 2002, to February 28, 2003
• Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, director, May 8, 2003, to May 13, 2008
• Royal Television Society, director in three periods between May 24, 2006, and June 30, 2016, along with its subsidiaries RTS Enterprises Limited and RTS (IBC) Limited from June 2006 to 2008
• Trinity Mirror plc (later Reach plc), non-executive director, January 2, 2008, to December 27, 2015; senior independent director from 2014
• Countrywide plc, non-executive director, June 9, 2014, to June 26, 2019

Lighting was also a non-executive director of Paddy Power plc, appointed in 2009; that role does not appear in her Companies House record. Lighting chaired the Royal Television Society from 2006 to 2007, succeeding Richard Freudenstein and followed by Wayne Garvie.

Controversies

Brainteaser phone-in affair

In March 2007, during a wider controversy over premium-rate phone-in competitions on British television, Endemol UK told the broadcaster of problems with its daytime quiz Brainteaser. The channel suspended all programming involving premium-rate phone lines, including Quiz Call on Five and Five US, and appointed an external auditor. Lighting said: "We are shocked and disappointed and wish to apologise unreservedly to our viewers. The production company involved has failed to meet the high standards we demand of our suppliers."

On June 26, 2007, Ofcom fined the broadcaster £300,000 for breaches of the broadcasting code by Brainteaser, which had faked winners. The Media Leader reported that this was the largest financial penalty Ofcom had imposed on a public service broadcaster to that point. Ofcom also required the channel to broadcast a statement of its findings twice, once in the programme's former slot and once in peak time. Lighting said the broadcaster was "disappointed with the very high level of the financial penalty imposed, especially as we believe Five took all reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure the programme complied with the Ofcom Code". Lighting noted that Ofcom had accepted that the channel "acted in good faith at all times" and did not intend to deceive viewers, that the broadcaster had itself notified the regulator, and that Endemol had acknowledged "fundamental errors of judgement". Brainteaser did not return, and the channel said it would donate the profits to a cancer charity.

In July 2007 Lighting's broadcaster began a review of its procedures, contracts and supplier relationships and co-wrote a handbook for independent producers with Channel 4. Lighting said: "The question of viewer trust is the most serious issue we face today."

Exit from Five

Lighting's departure in 2008 was presented by both sides as a disagreement over strategy. Her own statement referred to a failure to reach "common agreement over strategic direction" with RTL Group; RTL's statement praised her record and gave no reason for the change. Airey's move from ITV also strained relations between the two broadcasters, and ITV was reported to be considering legal action against her over commercially sensitive information.

Recognition

• Fellow of the Royal Television Society
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

See also

• Dawn Airey
• Channel 5 (UK)
• RTL Group
• Reach plc
• Flextech

External links

• Royal Television Society: list of chairs (archived)