As it aims to maximise the efficiency of two of its key arms by creating one team, leading UK commercial broadcaster ITV has appointed Ruth Berry to lead both of ITV Studios’ global commercial divisions, Global Distribution and Global Entertainment.
ITV Global Entertainment is responsible for international unscripted format sales and exploitation across the group while Global Distribution focuses on the international distribution of drama and the finished tape versions of all other ITV Studios and third party programmes.
The bringing together of Global Distribution and Global Entertainment under a single leadership team is designed to enable ITV Studios to align more closely with buyers and reflects the evolution of the global market with the growth of the streaming platforms, on-going market consolidation and the adoption by many buyers of a single buying approach across all genres.
Currently managing director, global distribution, Berry has had a decade with ITV Studios and in her six-year tenure as MD has overseen the transformation of the predominantly English-language content sales (with a factual specialism), to a global distributor of English and European language drama, alongside an portfolio of high quality non-scripted titles. Prior to joining ITV Studios, Berry was at Shine International where she was SVP, head of EMEA and at The Walt Disney Company where her roles included head of branded services and digital media distribution, EMEA.
Berry is now charged with leading the distribution and monetisation of the catalogue of 90,000 hours with 285 unique formats which includes hit titles Love Island, My Mum Your Dad, Maternal, The Voice and Line of Duty. The sales teams will remain positioned around the world with dedicated format and finished programming teams based in Holland, UK, US, Australia and Singapore.
Berry’s team will continue to work alongside the other centres of excellence within the international part of ITV Studios including International Production, headed up by Lisa Perrin and The Creative Network, headed up by Mike Beale.
Commenting on the appointment which will also see Arjan Pomper step down as managing director of the Global Entertainment division, ITV Studios’ COO David McGraynor said: “Ruth has been instrumental in building our commercial business and partnering with our clients globally. She has a deep knowledge of what our partners need and we look forward to on-going growth as she leads the two divisions. I’d like to thank Arjan for the significant contribution he has played in shaping and delivering the strategy for Global Entertainment. Under his leadership he has created a great team that has delivered impressive financial and operational performance.”
The bringing together of Global Distribution and Global Entertainment under a single leadership team is designed to enable ITV Studios to align more closely with buyers and reflects the evolution of the global market with the growth of the streaming platforms, on-going market consolidation and the adoption by many buyers of a single buying approach across all genres.
Currently managing director, global distribution, Berry has had a decade with ITV Studios and in her six-year tenure as MD has overseen the transformation of the predominantly English-language content sales (with a factual specialism), to a global distributor of English and European language drama, alongside an portfolio of high quality non-scripted titles. Prior to joining ITV Studios, Berry was at Shine International where she was SVP, head of EMEA and at The Walt Disney Company where her roles included head of branded services and digital media distribution, EMEA.
Berry is now charged with leading the distribution and monetisation of the catalogue of 90,000 hours with 285 unique formats which includes hit titles Love Island, My Mum Your Dad, Maternal, The Voice and Line of Duty. The sales teams will remain positioned around the world with dedicated format and finished programming teams based in Holland, UK, US, Australia and Singapore.
Berry’s team will continue to work alongside the other centres of excellence within the international part of ITV Studios including International Production, headed up by Lisa Perrin and The Creative Network, headed up by Mike Beale.
Commenting on the appointment which will also see Arjan Pomper step down as managing director of the Global Entertainment division, ITV Studios’ COO David McGraynor said: “Ruth has been instrumental in building our commercial business and partnering with our clients globally. She has a deep knowledge of what our partners need and we look forward to on-going growth as she leads the two divisions. I’d like to thank Arjan for the significant contribution he has played in shaping and delivering the strategy for Global Entertainment. Under his leadership he has created a great team that has delivered impressive financial and operational performance.”
