Scott Taunton (born 1971) is an Australian businessman who has been the chief executive of the

Wireless Group Wireless Group Limited is a radio and digital broadcasting network with headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland and with radio operations in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It currently operates five stations in Ireland and ...

since November 2016. He is also the EVP and President of Broadcasting of

News UK News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher of ...

Career

Taunton began his career as an IT training manager at the Australian Government's

Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their ow ...

in 1992. He later moved to

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

, where he co-founded the internet service provider DNA Internet in 1995. He was general manager of DNA Internet until March 2000, when the company was acquired by

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

-based broadcaster UTV Media. He was later appointed chief executive of

UTV Radio Wireless Group Limited is a radio and digital broadcasting network with headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland and with radio operations in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It currently operates five stations in Ireland and ...

following its acquisition by UTV Media in June 2005. In August 2014, he became UTV's

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

. UTV Media was acquired by

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

in February 2016 and changed its name to Wireless Group, with Taunton continuing as COO. As Wireless's chief operating officer, Taunton oversaw the relaunch of

Virgin Radio Virgin Radio launched in the United Kingdom in 1993. In 2008, Virgin Radio UK was sold to TIML, a subsidiary of The Times of India group, and the name was changed to Absolute Radio; the Virgin Radio name was not included in the sale. In 2001, ...

in March 2016, before being promoted to chief executive eight months later. In June 2020, with Taunton at the helm, another talk radio station was launched,

Times Radio Times Radio is a British digital radio station owned by News UK. It is jointly operated by Wireless Group (which News UK acquired in 2016), ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''. As of September 2022, the station broadcasts to a weekly audienc ...

. Taunton said of the station, "Since Wireless joined the News UK family, we have been working more and more collaboratively with ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', lending our radio and podcasting expertise to develop an audio strategy for one of the world's pre-eminent newsbrands." In April 2021, News UK revealed that its planned television channel had been scrapped, with new plans to launch a streaming service instead. David Rhodes, who was due to speerhead the project, departed as chief executive of News UK Broadcasting and was replaced by Taunton. On 16 September 2021, it was announced that News UK had reversed their decision and would launch its news channel, talkTV, in 2022. According to Taunton, "talkTV will provide a rich mix of entertaining and informative shows that no other service provides."

Personal life

On 13 October 2014, Taunton became engaged to Georgia Mcguffie.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taunton, Scott People from Canberra Living people Australian chief executives Australian radio executives 1971 births