Abraham describes Pritchard (pictured) as “the final piece of the jigsaw” in his restructure of the senior executive team, which began last year.

Pritchard, previously director of strategy and corporate development, will now be responsible for all activities relating to research, data capture and database management analytics, as well as the dissemination and commercial use of these information assets throughout the business.

She will build a new group within the company encompassing the existing research and insight team, the viewer support team and audience technologies. Her ultimate goal, according to a statement, is to “transform the way Channel 4 collates and uses data and viewer insight in order to inspire new ideas and maximise Channel 4’s competitiveness as a media provider”.

Abraham said: “This is a first for the UK broadcast industry, and with a background in economic analysis as well as broadcasting and strategy, Gill is a natural fit for this dynamic new position.”

Pritchard joined Channel 4 as director of strategy in 2008, before adding corporate development responsibilities two year later. Before that, she was director of children’s and head of strategy at BBC Worldwide, and worked across strategy consulting and economic analysis at Anderson Business Consulting.

Her promotion sees Keith Underwood, head of strategy, and Glyn Isherwood, director of finance, take on responsibility for strategy and corporate development respectively.

Pritchard’s colleagues on the senior executive team are chief creative officer Jay Hunt, director of marketing and communications Dan Brooke, chief operating officer Anne Bulford, director of sales Andy Barnes and human resources director Diane Herbert.