Lighting, currently chief executive of Telewest Broadband's programming arm Flextech, has worked in TV for more than 20 years, including founding her own company called Minotaur International. She takes over from Airey, who quit in September to become managing director of Sky Networks. Lighting will start at Five in April.
Airey had begun the move to the mainstream, which is being seen by analysts as the only way Five can take on ITV.
Simon Lapthorne, media analyst at Arbuthnot, formerly Old Mutual Securities, said: "If anything, the appointment of Lighting reinforces the idea that changing the nature of its programming is to continue. Five would like to be seen as a challenger to ITV, but to do that it has got to take it more mainstream."
This view is backed up by Carat broadcast director Steve Hobson, who believes the channel has been very "astute in taking on someone with a programming background".
The choice seems to reflect the determination of Five, and of owners RTL, to continue its emphasis on investing in programming in an effort to win more advertisers. This strategy saw its audience share grow to 6.5% last year from 5.9% the year before. As a result, its share of advertising revenues climbed to 7.5% from 6.4% in the same period.
If Five seriously wants to be seen as a challenger to ITV though, the difficulty it will face is affording the shows that will allow it to become a serious mainstream broadcaster. It has scored highly by buying top-rated US shows such as 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' before they hit big. It is here that Lapthorne believes the appointment of Lighting is significant.
"It does suggest that they're going to continue to improve the perception of the content. Five recognises that you have to get the content right, but at the right price. The secret [to that] is to have people at Five who can generate good content at a reasonable price," he said.
Lapthorne believes that someone with a sales background would look at it from a different point of view and concentrate on bringing in ad revenues first, which would in turn be invested in content.
Confirmation of Lighting's appointment to the top Five post came as little surprise to the industry, because it has been widely speculated in the press over the last several weeks. However, it now begs the question: what will happen to Five managing director of sales Nick Milligan, who was also in the running for the top job? Since Airey left, Milligan has been in place as acting chief executive in the interim period.
However, it is unclear what Milligan's next move will be, if he makes one at all. Some believe that he may even stay at the channel and be happy to concentrate on running the commercial operation as he did before when Airey -- also from a programming background -- was chief executive.
One industry source said: "The external perception is that he wouldn't mind and, because Nick and Dawn worked so well together, he would probably be happy concentrating on running the commercial side of the business."
This view would also rule out speculation that Milligan is thinking about heading up a joint sales house between Channel 4, Five and Sky, if ITV is allowed to merge its sales houses.
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