Rory Callaghan is departing Shine Australia to join the Screentime Group as CEO.
Screentime CEO Bob Campbell is being promoted to executive chairman, a post which had been vacant since co-founder Des Monaghan retired last year.
Callaghan will depart as executive director of Shine Australia when his contract expires later this year.
Campbell told IF, “This is about bandwidth at Screentime. We want to grow the company and Rory has the skillset to do that.”
Banijay Group CEO Marco Bassetti negotiated the deal with Callaghan, with whom he worked closely when the latter was CEO of Southern Star.
Callaghan and Campbell will both report to Bassetti, who said, “As a group we intend to significantly increase our scripted and non-scripted output and Screentime will play a big role in our plans. We are very pleased to have an executive as well-known, well-qualified and prolific as Rory to take Screentime and Banijay Group to the next level.”
At Shine Callaghan’s credits as producer or EP include Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door, Catching Milat and Never Tear Us Apart: The Untold Story of INXS.
In a statement Callaghan said: “I am excited to be joining a company with such a great heritage. Screentime presents a big opportunity to build on its track record in drama and non-fiction, and to add some new elements to the mix.”
Shine Australia confirmed that Callaghan elected not to renew his contract and has decided to move on. Joint CEOs Mark and Carl Fennessy said: "Rory is a highly talented television executive and has been a wonderful colleague and great friend. We are sad to lose him but wish him well in his next endeavours."
This is a busy time at Screentime which is producing a second series of Village Vets Australia for Foxtel's The LifeStyle Channel and developing two drama series and a studio-based entertainment show for the ABC.
Screentime’s Stop Laughing … this is serious, a 3-part documentary series which chronicles the history of Australian comedy, featuring more than 60 interviews, premieres on ABC on March 25.
With Greg Mclean’s Emu Pictures Screentime is developing a six-part series based on Wolf Creek, which will star John Jarratt, for SVOD platform Stan.
The global merger of Shine, Endemol and the Core group is taking shape in the US and other key territories. There is no word yet on the structure of the Australian operation, currently run by Shine’s Fennessy brothers and Endemol’s Janeen Faithfull.