UTV Media has appointed Matt Williams as group director of trading in Ireland. Based in Dublin, he will be responsible for UTV's trading strategies inits television business, as well as developing the group's revenues across its other media platforms.

Mr Williams was most recently part of the commercial team at TV3, where he was head of trading. He will work alongside Brian McCarthy, the national sales director for UTV Radio Solutions, and former TV3 head of sales Daragh Byrne, who was appointed head of sales of UTV Ireland earlier this year.

Mr Williams began his career with STV in London and spent 16 years with ITV before moving to Dublin in 2003 to set up commercial operations for Viacom across its range of channels, including MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.

“The introduction of UTV Ireland is an extremely positive development for the broadcasting industry in Ireland,” Mr Williams said.

UTV Ireland has been busy this year expanding its team at its Macken House base in Dublin’s Docklands. The Belfast-headquartered company announced last November that it planned to launch a television channel aimed at viewers in the Republic in January 2015.