The TV Boss Who Didn’t Want to Play David Ellison’s Game Tells All

“You have to be Stephen Hawking, probably, to understand how Skydance all fits together,” says Ben Frow, the chief content officer of Skydance-owned Channel 5. “I’m not that clever, and it’s not really my business.”

I visited Frow at his London office two days after Skydance closed its seismic merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. Six days later he told employees that he plans to leave in 2027, after 15 years running what was once an also-ran network — which has been called simply 5 since a 2025 rebrand. 

Many in the U.K. industry connect 5’s run of successful productions to Frow’s Midas touch. His departure in late 2027, first reported by Deadline, will be a blow to British broadcasting. When I reached him by phone the day of the announcement, Frow says the exit was his own decision. It’s time, he tells me, for a more “technically skillful” and business-savvy content boss who can help 5 get closer to the Skydance family.

“The big creative overhaul is done. I’ve done that. The business is going through a very different change now,” says Frow, who informed Paramount Skydance’s former international boss, Kevin MacLellan, in August 2025 that he was “probably not here for the long haul.”

But he’s still running 5 “until the day I walk out of this building,” he says. “I will fight my corner, and for what I think is right for the business, and protect everything we’ve achieved.”

At 65, Frow freely admits he doesn’t know how to use AI or even a computer, and isn’t especially interested in navigating Hollywood’s increasingly complicated corporate machinery.

“I am prepared to never work again because I think I’m pretty unemployable,” he tells me when we speak again following his announcement.

But don’t mistake his self-deprecation for a lack of success.

Over 14 years, Frow has grown 5 from a dumping ground for American exports and bargain-basement shows into a legitimate challenger brand with commercial hits that appeal to an underserved, older British demographic. The past week’s schedule includes titles such as Will You Get Dementia?, The Cruise: Fun-Loving Brits at Sea, Michael Palin in the Philippines and Piers Morgan Uncensored — a license of the pundit’s YouTube show.

On the day of my visit, Skydance branding, almost comically large, blared brightly in the lobby of Paramount’s U.K. headquarters. The signage had gone up less than an hour after David Ellison closed his $110 billion deal that brings the All Creatures Great and Small broadcaster under the same corporate umbrella as HBO, CBS, CNN and Warner Bros. Pictures.

The voluble, charismatic Frow says Skydance’s machinations aren’t his business — his roughly £200 million ($264 million) annual budget hasn’t been affected by years of ownership changes, he says — but 5 plays an important role for Ellison on the international stage: As a U.K. public-service broadcaster alongside the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, it brings the Skydance CEO into the political orbit of Downing Street. Meanwhile, 5 delivers a valuable English-language programming pipeline for Paramount+ and other U.S. streamers. Programs 5 sells to Netflix often land in the U.K. top 10, and All Creatures is one of PBS’ top shows in the U.S.

And it’s not as though Ellison is starving the network. As part of the commitments surrounding his Warner Bros. Discovery deal, Skydance has pledged another £80 million ($105 million) to Channel 5 over three years — the first significant new investment Frow says the network has been promised.

5’s annual earnings, however, revealed a staggering 75 percent drop in profits last year to £8.3 million ($11 million), from £32.8 million ($43 million) in 2024. The decline reflects brutal conditions in the linear ad market, as well as increased spending on 5’s streaming service — also called simply 5 — that has helped make it the fastest-growing broadcaster-owned streaming service in the U.K.

And Frow isn’t quite finished building. He has some welcome news below for fans of Channel 5’s transatlantic hit All Creatures Great and Small, including what comes after the show’s eighth season — and plans to expand the beloved franchise.

So why walk away now?

In our conversations, Frow was characteristically blunt. He pulls no punches in discussing the industry’s YouTube gold rush, and he has some surprisingly candid observations about the executives running the new Skydance — including recently departed Paramount streaming chief Cindy Holland, whom Frow never even bothered to meet.

In Hollywood, executives spend entire careers trying to get into the room with the people at the top. Frow, it turns out, has spent much of his career doing precisely the opposite. And his explanation for why may be the secret to surviving Hollywood’s endless corporate upheavals.

In our wide-ranging conversations, I chat with Frow about: 

• Why he insists the decision to leave didn’t come from America — and why he’s prepared never to work again
• How 5 makes prime-time drama for £250,000 an hour — and the one tax-break fix he says would stop it from shooting in Budapest
• What comes after All Creatures’ eighth season — and how 5 plans to expand the franchise
• What Ellison really thinks of the words “content” and “talent” — and Frow’s blunter alternative
• Why the Skydance “universe” is impossible to navigate — and why smart execs don’t get attached to senior leadership
• How AI is staging Catherine of Aragon’s battle scenes on a 5 budget
• Why Frow thinks the YouTube gold rush is delusional — and where Piers Morgan fits in