Peter Salmon (born 15 May 1956) is a British television producer and executive. He is Chief Creative Officer of global content creator, producer and distributor Endemol Shine Group, leading the company’s creative direction globally and overseeing the Group’s UK business. Prior to taking his current role in April 2016, Salmon was Director of BBC Studios, the corporation's production arm, and before that held a number of senior BBC roles including Chief Creative Officer of BBC Vision, effectively overseeing all of BBC television's in-house programme production, and Director of BBC North.
Early life and career
Born in Burnley, Lancashire, Peter Derek Salmon studied at St Theodore's RC High School in the town and then the University of Warwick and graduated in 1977 with a degree in European literature. He then spent six months working for the Voluntary Service Overseas charity, as a teacher in Sarawak. In 1984 he was the director of the first dramatic reconstruction to be featured on the crime series Crimewatch, and he later went on to produce the programme.
He left Channel 4 in February 1996 to become Director of Programmes at Granada Television, one of the largest companies of the ITV network and one of the major providers of nationally-networked programming for the channel. Salmon took charge of BBC One in September 1997.
Salmon rejoined the BBC at a difficult time, when it was losing many senior executives such as Jackson to rival broadcasters. Responsible for a £652 million annual programming budget, and for three successive years of Salmon's time in charge the channel was criticised in the annual report of the Board of Governors of the BBC for its performance and output. Salmon also found himself criticised in the media for rescheduling and cutting back on the annual number of editions of BBC One's flagship current affairs series Panorama. BBC One also saw its audience fall to record lows on several occasions during Salmon's period in charge.
Finally, on 13 September 2000, the BBC officially announced that Salmon was to leave BBC One to become the new Director of BBC Sport. Although the BBC lost the prestigious television rights to The Boat Race in 2004 during Salmon's period in charge, the department was able to win back high-profile events such as the FA Cup (in 2001, after having previously lost the event to ITV in 1997), England football internationals (in 2001), and FA Premier League football highlights for Match of the Day (2004). However, when Television Corporation was taken over by the Welsh company Tinopolis, Salmon left the organisation. He returned to the BBC in 2006 to become Chief Creative Officer of the new "BBC Vision Productions" set-up, overseeing all creative output from the BBC's in-house production centres.
In December 2008 he became the director of BBC North Group Division, and in May 2014 was appointed Director of BBC England.
Personal life
Salmon is married to the actress Sarah Lancashire.