Nigel Pickard

Nigel has worked in television since 1972

He developed and produced a wide range of programmes before becoming Controller of Children’s and Family at TVS in 1986. In 1998, he moved to ITV to be Controller of Children’s and Youth Programmes, responsible for the commissioning and scheduling of all ITV children’s output.  In 2000, he was appointed Controller of BBC Children’s overseeing the launch of two new channels, CBBC and CBeebies.

In 2003, Nigel was invited back to ITV as Director of Programmes, where his remit was the scheduling and commissioning of the entire ITV output including all drama, entertainment, comedy, factual and religious programmes as well as the acquisition of all films and content from abroad.

After 3 successful years overseeing major commissions such as 'The X Factor', 'Britain’s Got Talent' and 'Dancing on Ice', he joined RDF as Group Director of Kids, Family Entertainment and Drama, where, amongst others he has been responsible for commissions such as ‘Mister Maker’, ‘Dani’s House’, ‘Escape from Scorpion Island’ and ‘Tickety Toc’ as well as the CBeebies landmark series, ‘Waybuloo’.  After the merger with Zodiak Group in 2010, Nigel assumed the role of CEO MEAA, Zodiak UK Kids.

From 2014 Nigel has been a Director of Spindrift Media and is currently also President of The RightsXchange (TRX) – a global trading platform for secondary TV and online video rights.

Nigel was a founder member of the Save Kids' TV Executive Committee and became a Board member of The Children's Media Foundation in January 2012.

Board