What It Took with Tom Smith

Roku’s UK Managing Director Richard Halton joins Tom Smith to look back on a career spanning the BBC, YouView and television’s move to streaming.Richard shares why he left consulting for work he believed in, what it felt like to find himself among the BBC’s senior leaders in his twenties, and how he learned to bring people with competing priorities together. He reflects on the colleagues who backed him, the pressures of leadership and the experiences that shaped his priorities.Chapters:00:00 Episode preview and introduction02:01 Northern roots and work ethic04:20 Leaving consulting for the BBC08:32 BBC vs ITV: moving the news13:23 Helping shape BBC Three and BBC Four19:29 Learning to lead inside the BBC22:07 Overcoming imposter syndrome24:33 Balancing fatherhood, family and work27:47 Keeping the BBC relevant to younger audiences32:13 Inside the BBC’s first YouTube deal40:15 The human cost of strategy43:00 Why Project Kangaroo never launched50:36 Family, loss and the support that mattered55:42 From Project Canvas to YouView1:03:31 Standing his ground with seven CEOs1:08:07 Bringing the team together to launch YouView1:16:05 Working with Lord Sugar1:21:47 Project Origin: solving advertising measurement1:28:17 Building Roku’s UK business1:35:39 What it took: the closing summaryWhat It Took is brought to you by FX Digital, the Connected TV App Experts.Your host, Tom Smith, co-founded FX Digital with CEO Matt Duhig and serves as its Chief Product Officer.Listen and follow on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for more conversations about the people and decisions behind the industry.Content note: This episode includes a discussion of suicide and bereavement.