Michael Jackson, currently chair of Universal Television, was the first graduate of a media studies degree course to reach executive levels in British television. He was the BBC's youngest department head of all time, and shares with Michael Grade the distinction of having been in charge of both BBC Television and Channel 4.

     He graduated in 1979 with the intention of becoming an independent producer. His dissertation on purchased programs enabled him to make contacts in the television industry, and he became the organizer of the Channel 4 Group, a campaign aimed at ensuring the planned fourth channel would provide extensive opportunities for independent production. When Channel 4 was established, a series in the 1960s developed and produced by Jackson was one of its first commissioned programs. The series Open The Box, co-produced by Jackson's company, Beat, and the British Film Institute, and his long-running magazine program The Media Show illustrated his interest in the culture industries. When he joined the BBC in 1988 he pursued this interest by establishing a long­ running nightly arts review, The Late Show, producing Rock Family Trees, based on the book of elaborate charts of rock history by Pete Frame, and commissioning the media-based series Naked Holly­ wood, and TV Hell. With The Late Show, Jackson de­ signed a program format that was self-consciously elusive, breaking television convention by dispensing with fixed theme tune and title sequence, and at­ tempting to ensure that the program could remain fresh and surprising. Its disappearance from the screen has left a gap yet to be filled.

     Projects generated by and programs commissioned by Michael Jackson typically had a distinctive approach characterized by a marked degree of postmodern self-referentiality. Successes at the BBC included Fantasy Football League, The Mrs. Merton Show, Changing Rooms, and This Life. Changing Rooms was the first and most successful of a new genre of style transformation shows. After he moved to Channel 4, successes included Da Ali G Show, Smack The Po,1y, The Valley, /900 House, Staying Lost, Tina Goes Shopping, and So Graham Norton. Several careers benefited from the success of these programs, which heired to establish the personalities of Frank Skinner and David Baddie), Caroline Aherne, Graham Norton, and Ali G. Queer As Folk broke new ground in being a drama series based around gay relationships.

     As chief executive, Michael Jackson steered Channel 4 in a more entrepreneurial direction, raising turnover 30 percent over four years, and establishing new channels Film Four and E4. Programming initiatives included the innovative coverage of Test Cricket, the re-launched seven-day Channel 4 News, and 1he British version of Big Brother. Big Brother attracted extensive attention from the audience and the media. The Internet site has attracted over 119 million hits and up to seven million votes were cast in the regular eviction contests. Channel 4 has been able to compete well in its niche, capitalizing on its ability to attract young affluent viewers and hence advertising revenue. Some critics have expressed concern that the repositioning engineered by Jackson has taken the channel away from its brief to be alternative and innovative. It would be fair to say that it has a metropolitan trendiness when compared to its closest competitor channel, BBC 2, and that the range of voices, a feature of the channel's early years, now seems narrower.

     Throughout his career, a genuine concern with the quality of television, across program genres, has been evident. Jackson believes the scarcest commodity in television is good ideas, and his commissioning is based on a search for innovation in form as well as content. The frequent change of post and ceaseless quest for innovation might suggest a restless process of refocusing, but Jackson is also known to have dogged persistence, working with projects like Rock Family Trees and the drama Our Friends in the North for many years before they reached the screen. Michael Jackson has never been slow to take on a new challenge, and having held top jobs at two channels in the United Kingdom, is now working to make a mark in the United States. Many media observers expect him to return home eventually to become director general of the BBC. Typically, Jackson himself does not proclaim a desire for the post, but neither does he deny its potential appeal.