Roly Keating

Roly Keating, Chief Executive of the British Library.

Roland "Roly" Francis Kester Keating (born 5 August 1961) is Chief Executive of the British Library. He took up his post in September 2012.^[1]

Life and career

Keating was educated at Westminster School, an independent school for boys in London, and then read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford.

He joined the BBC in 1983. He was a producer and director for the Arts and Music department, making programmes for Omnibus, Bookmark (1992-7) and Arena. He was a producer and later became editor of The Late Show. In 1997, he became head of programming for UKTV, partly owned by the BBC. In 1999, he became the BBC Controller of Digital Channels. In 2000, he also took on the responsibility of Controller of Arts Commissioning. He became the Controller of digital television station BBC Four in December 2001, masterminding its launch on 2 March 2002. In 2003, he was also joint leader of the BBC's Charter Review project for six months. He became the channel controller for BBC Two in June 2004^[2] a position he held until 2008. He was appointed temporary controller of BBC One following Peter Fincham's resignation^[3] on 5 October 2007.

While Controller, he said that he wanted to see BBC Two be the first mainstream British TV channel to be available on broadband.^[4] His decision to screen Jerry Springer: The Opera on 8 January 2005 forced him to go into hiding and he was given security protection.^[5]

Keating was previously Director of Archive Content for the BBC.^[6] He was announced as chief executive designate of the British Library in May 2012, to succeed Lynne Brindley DBE.

As of 2015, Keating was paid a salary of between £155,000 and £159,999 by the British Library, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.^[7]

References

1. A & C Black (2012). "KEATING, Roland Francis Kester, (Roly)". Who's Who 2012, online edition. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
2. BBC Press Office: Roly Keating named new Controller of BBC TWO
3. BBC Press Office: Peter Fincham resigns as Controller, BBC One
4. "BBC Two 'first to go broadband'". BBC. 2006-02-08. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
5. The Independent http://web.archive.org/web/20070927200827/http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article14242.ece. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-04. Missing or empty |title= (help)
6. "BBC - Press Office - Roly Keating appointed as Director of Archive Content". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
7. "Senior officials 'high earners' salaries as at 30 September 2015 - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. 2015-12-17. Retrieved 2016-03-09.

External links

• BBC Biography for Roly Keating
• Changing BBC TWO's idents in February 2007