Discovery Channel Names Andrew O'Connell VP of Development, Production

Discovery Channel US announced today that veteran TV executive Andrew O'Connell has been named Vice President of Development and Production. O'Connell will officially join the network on July 11, based in the United Kingdom, and report directly to Denise Contis, Executive Vice President of Production and Development for Discovery. In this new role, O'Connell will work closely with the UK production community tasked with generating the next factual format hits for the US network. He will also partner with Discovery Network International's Development and Production team.

"Andrew brings an incredible depth of experience and expertise that is a perfect fit for Discovery," Contis said. "He has developed strong relationships across the United Kingdom and worked on a wide range of successful programs. I'm incredibly excited to have him part of the team."

O'Connell joins Discovery from ITV where he was responsible for a wide range of factual programming since June 2014 including "Heathrow: Britain's Busiest Airport," "Sugar Free Farm," "Rookies," "Britain's Favourite Dogs" and "Life At The Extreme." Prior to ITV, he spent four years at Channel 5 as Head of News, Current Affairs and Factual and commissioned series including "Chris Tarrant's Extreme Railways," "Trauma Doctors," "World's Biggest Pets" and "Royal Navy: Caribbean Patrol." During his tenure at Sky 1 from 2005- 2009, he was responsible for the multi award-winning "Ross Kemp on Gangs" and "Ross Kemp in Afghanistan" series.