Zai Bennett (born 1974) is a television executive. He is the Managing Director of Content for

Sky UK Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), Trade name, trading as Sky, is a British broadcasting, broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone ...

and Ireland,Sky's Zai Bennett talks content strategy: I’d rather bet big on fewer things and just go for it
Screen Daily, 20 March 2023 and former controller of

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

.Zai Bennett announced as new BBC Three controller

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, 16 December 2010

Early life

Zai Bennett was educated at Goffs School, Hertfordshire and studied History and Politics BA and Modern History MA at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

Career

Zai Bennett started his career in 1995 in the post room at

Carlton Television Carlton Television (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Tele ...

, then worked as presentation scheduler for the launch of Channel 5 in 1997. He worked for ITV from 1998 in a number of roles including Head of Programme Strategy,

ITV Digital Channels ITV Digital Channels Limited (formerly known as Granada Sky Broadcasting) is a subsidiary, wholly owned subsidiary of British broadcaster ITV plc. It was set up in 1996 and operated until 2004 as a joint venture between Granada plc and Sky U ...

and

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...

Programming and Acquisitions Manager. He was Controller of

from 2006 to 2009. In April 2010 he was appointed ITV's Director of Digital Channels and Acquisitions, where he was responsible for overseeing editorial content on ITV's digital channels (

ITV3 ITV3 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. The channel was first launched on Monday 1 November 2004 at 9 pm, replacing Plus (British TV channel), Plus ...

ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which first aired on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV plc. The channel focuses primarily on general entertainment programming targeting a male audience, including action series and films, ...

and the

CITV CITV is a British children's morning programming block on ITV2 and formerly a free-to-air channel owned by ITV plc. CITV, then Children's ITV, launched on 3 January 1983 as a late afternoon programming block on the ITV network for children aged ...

channel), including all commissioning and scheduling across the channels. In December 2010 the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

announced he would become Controller of

in 2011. Zai Bennett announced as Controller
BBC Three,

, Press Office, 16 December 2010 Zai Bennett appointed BBC3 controller

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, 16 December 2010 BBC appoints ITV2's Zai Bennett as controller of BBC Three

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

, 17 December 2010 In April 2014, after it was announced that BBC Three would become an online-only service, Bennett revealed he would be joining

Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group, Sky Group Limited that launched in 2011 and broadcasts in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel airs original British-produced dramas like ''Fortitude (TV series), F ...

as the channel's director. Zai was appointed to his current role of Managing Director of Content in 2019 and is responsible for Sky’s portfolio of entertainment, cinema and children's services. Our Leadership , Zai Bennett
Sky Corporate Website Under his leadership, working with Director of Sky Arts Phil Edgar-Jones, in 2020, Sky Arts became a free-to-air channel with the aim of making the arts more accessible to all.Our Leadership , Zai Bennett
Sky Corporate Website In 2020, Sky launched six new channels, further broadening the content for its customers, including an entirely new factual division.Our Leadership , Zai Bennett
Sky Corporate Website

References

BBC executives BBC Three controllers Living people 1974 births {{BBC-tv-bio-stub