Guest · Publishers and media owners
Russell Pedrick
Managing Director, Octave
Two decades across email, sport, news and audio, Pedrick now leads Octave's push to make audio a planned medium.
About
Russell Pedrick is Managing Director of Octave, the News UK audio business he leads as a premium audiovisual proposition. He is known for arguing that audio is systematically underinvested against how much people listen, and for bringing dynamic AI creative into the medium through Octave AI.
Pedrick studied marketing at university and, with a father in sales, began by selling email marketing. He joined ESPN, part of the Walt Disney Company, as a TV and digital salesperson in the era when it held Premier League rights, and stayed five years as the business turned digital first. He then spent a decade at News UK, joining The Sun as a group head, 10 years ago this November, and rising to head of digital.
Around four and a half to five years ago Russell moved to the broadcasting side of News UK as director of digital, as the digital audio market evolved sharply. When News UK acquired Octave, he became its Managing Director, officially in April 2025. He describes Octave as a premium, Ofcom regulated audiovisual business built on News UK first-party data, with over 90 audience segments and partnerships spanning gaming, dynamic AI creative and connected TV.
Career17 years
- 2025 to now Octave Managing Director
- 2022 to 2025 News Broadcasting Director of Digital - News Broadcasting
- 2020 to 2022 News UK Head of Digital - The Sun
- 2016 to 2020 News UK Digital Group Head
Show earlier roles: ESPN, Play Media Limited, TMN Group
- 2016 ESPN Group Head
- 2014 to 2016 ESPN UK Sales Manager
- 2013 to 2014 ESPN Senior Sales
- 2011 to 2013 ESPN Sales
- 2011 Play Media Limited Account Manager
- 2011 TMN Group Agency Account Manager
- 2010 to 2011 TMN Group Senior Sales Executive
- 2009 to 2010 TMN Group Sales Executive
How Russell thinks3 convictions
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Premium and regulated content
Pedrick draws a firm line between invested, Ofcom regulated content and unregulated feeds. He compares the emergence of purely AI generated podcasts to the old argument between a trusted news title and a bot-written blog. For him, quality is what makes audio worth buying, and defending it is central to Octave's premium positioning.
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Audio is underinvested
Pedrick treats the gap between audio's audience and its ad spend as a failure of understanding rather than of the medium. He argues buyers still misjudge the role audio can play across a wider plan. Closing that gap, he says, is an education job that sellers like Octave have to lead.
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Consumer comes first
Watching audiences juggle multiple subscriptions and platforms, Pedrick insists partnerships and planning start from how people actually consume media. He frames the collision of podcast, gaming, social and broadcast as an audience question before a commercial one. The consumer, he argues, is where every judgment eventually lands.
