Brett Hansen is quitting MTV after nineteen years at the broadcaster.

During his time at MTV, Hansen has been credited for leading growth of the brand across Europe. Key successes have included the development of localised channels and establishing the MTV Europe Music Awards as a major annual event.

"With nearly two decades at MTV Networks, I've decided this is the right time in the company's history for me to resign and move on," said Hansen in a statement on Friday. "I have led and challenged the company to further its core values.

"I'm particularly pleased to have helped encourage cultural exchange through music, which continues to be of huge personal and professional interest to me, in tapping into common interests and, hopefully, offering something new as well as the familiar."

Hansen first joined MTV Europe in 1987 as a news producer, landing the position of president of creative at MTV Networks Europe in 1994. He was promoted to the same role across MTV Networks International in 2003.

Bill Roedy, president of MTVNI, will take over from Hansen until a successor is appointed. Hansen, meanwhile, has been linked with a job running TVNZ in his native New Zealand but is expected to remain in London for "the foreseeable future".