Pact Members Meeting: Northern Ireland

Chris Curley

Director of Nations and Regions, Pact

Chris is a former Commissioning Editor and Head of Development at Comedy Central UK. He has great depth and breadth of development and production experience.

Chris has worked across genres at companies such as CPL, STV, Twenty Twenty, Green Inc., So, Vice and Hat Trick, with lots of experience working in the nations and regions. He brings with him a huge amount of knowledge, leadership skills and expertise.

Chris started his career at Granada Studios learning what a cafetiere was actually for. After graduating from journalism at the University of Sheffield he returned home to Manchester to work at the BBC across their entertainment and documentary output such as The Sunday Show, and Evel Knievel Night.

Chris has twenty years' experience in London, where he specialised in comedy and entertainment programmes working for all of the major broadcasters on shows such as ITV's Off Their Rockers and Safeword, BBC's Room 101 and Ask Rhod Gilbert, and Channel 4's Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong. Chris also has a successful track record in commissioning whilst at Comedy Central UK working across shows such as Roast Battle, Blockbusters, Your Face or Mine and Gods of the Game.

John McVay, OBE

Chief Executive, Pact

John has been involved in programme making as a producer, consultant and trainer since 1986.

Prior to his appointment at Pact, John held positions as the founding Director of the Research Centre for Television and Interactivity in Glasgow, Director of Training and Education at Scottish Screen, Chief Executive of Scottish Broadcast and Film Training and as a Director of Independent Film and Television production companies.

John contributes to many UK government and international policy fora on the creative industries, broadcasting, trade and investment.  John has extensive experience of policy development across all aspects of broadcasting and television production and leads on all Pact policy development in the UK and Europe.  He also maintains excellent relationships with all of the UK’s major political parties and the devolved assemblies and parliaments.  

John is a member of the Creative Diversity Network, a member of the Creative Industries Council (CIC) and is the industry lead on the CIC sector deal which has recently been agreed with the UK Government.  John is the Chairman of the UK’s digital single market campaign and is the UK rights spokesperson for the Creative Coalition Campaign. 

John has been active on many industry bodies and organisations and has served Chair of the Creative Diversity Network, as a board member of Skillset, Chairman of the Skillset TV Investment Committee, a Governor of the NFTS, and President of CEPI, the pan‑European TV producers' association.  He is also a member of the British Film Commission’s business group and a Board member of the Creative Cities Convention.

At Pact, John led the successful campaign that resulted in changes to the 2003 Communications Act which resulted in the UK having the world’s most creative and commercially successful independent production sector.  This achievement was followed by negotiating and overseeing the successful introduction of increased competition for BBC commissions (The WOCC) in the BBC charter from 2007-17 and the further agreement with the BBC that all programming will be contestable by the end of the BBC Charter 2017-28.  He recently led the successful campaign to ensure UK independent producers retained the regulations that guaranteed their ownership of intellectual property rights.

John is involved in all of the negotiations with UK PSBs for the commercial contracts that govern their commissioning of independent producers.  As part of his duties at Pact he is often involved in editorial or commercial issues between suppliers and commissioners and works to find a resolution that can work for all parties concerned.