Airey ousts Lighting as Five chief

ITV managing director of global content Dawn Airey has resigned from the broadcaster after less than a year to return to Five. She joins as chairman and chief executive, ousting Jane Lighting at the RTL-owned station.

Lighting has been chief executive of the channel for five years, taking over from Airey, who left the broadcaster for a role at rival BSkyB. It is understood that Lighting has now tendered her resignation.

An RTL spokesman says an announcement will be made “in the following days” but refuses to comment further. Airey is expected to join Five after a period of gardening leave, thought to be six months. She will also take a seat on RTL’s management committee alongside the group chief executive, Gerhard Zeiler, and other senior executives.

Airey joined ITV last autumn and she was promoted to the board along with Rupert Howell, managing director of brand and commercial, in February this year. Both Howell and Airey have been tipped as possible successors to executive chairman Michael Grade.

She joined the broadcaster following the meltdown of start-up TV company Iostar, where she was chief executive. She quit Iostar just days after she arrived in April last year following concerns over its finances and funding. The business has subsequently gone into liquidation.

She announced her departure from BSkyB, where she was managing director of channels and services, in December 2006. Airey was at the satellite broadcaster for more than four years and previously worked at Channel Five as both director of programmes and chief executive.