The man who oversaw the relaunch of ITV‘s streaming service will lead Scotland’s STV as CEO.

Rufus Radcliffe has been appointed to succeed Simon Pitts, who was named Chief Executive at British media firm Global earlier this year. Pitts exits on October 31 and Radcliffe will become STV Group boss a day later.

Radcliffe exited ITV, where he was a member of the UK commercial network’s Executive Committee, in April after 13 years. He has most recently been Managing Director of Streaming, Interactive and Data, playing a major role in ITV’s shift from linear broadcasting to digital, in particular overseeing the launch of streamer ITVX. He had also previously been Chief Marketing Officer, helping to launch BritBox.

ITV and STV have a uniquely close relationship, with the latter being the former’s franchise licensee in Scotland. In practice, this means most of ITV’s biggest shows such as soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale run on the network locally.

Paul Reynolds, Chair of STV Group plc, said: “The board is delighted to welcome Rufus to lead STV following a competitive selection process involving some of the best leadership talent in the UK media industry. We now embark on the next phase of STV’s exciting growth journey as a digital first, content-led business and Rufus brings with him a rare breadth of strategic and operational expertise from his previous significant industry roles. We very much look forward to working with him.” 

Radcliffe added: “STV is a great brand with an enviable track record of making high quality, must-watch content and has a strong relationship with viewers and advertisers. I’m thrilled to be joining and cannot wait to work with everyone at STV to build on the tremendous success and growth of the past few years.” 

In further changes, Non-Executive Director Simon Miller is stepping down from the board in December, with Colin Jones joining.