David Elstein joined the BBC in 1964, moving to ITV in 1968. His production credits include Panorama, Cause For Concern, This Week, Weekend World, The World At War, A Week In Politics and the Emmy-winning drama Concealed Enemies. He was a founder member of the Channel Four Group in the 1970s, and a leading provider of programmes for Channel 4 in its early years through his company, Brook Productions. As an executive, he was Director of Programmes at Thames TV, Head of Programming at BSkyB and Chief Executive of Channel 5. As a non-executive, he chaired the National Film and Television School, the British Screen Advisory Council, the Commercial Radio Companies Association, the Broadcasting Policy Group, Really Useful Theatres, Screen Digest, Sparrowhawk Media, DCD Media plc and Sports Network plc. He has been a board member at Virgin Media Inc, and a visiting professor at the universities of Oxford, Stirling and Westminster. His book, The Political Structure of UK Broadcasting 1949-99, was published last year. His chapter The Case for Privatisation will appear in the book of essays What Price Channel 4?, to be published in June. He chairs the board of open Democracy, and writes on media affairs for many outlets.
