Blue Ant builds Lat Am sales team

Producer, distributor and channel operator Blue Ant Media has set up a sales team to extend the presence of its networks in the Latin American and US Hispanic markets.

Julio Sobral

Julio Sobral, who joined Blue Ant last year following its takeover of David Haslingden’s Racat Group, will lead a team consisting of Fernando Gualda, Loreto Gaete, Starrett Berry and Sebastian Galia.

As general manager of kids and global networks for Lat Am and US Hispanic, Sobral will oversee the channel distribution and operations for Love Nature, ZooMoo and Arcade Cloud in the regions.

The channels specialise in original wildlife and nature programming, children’s programming and gaming content, respectively.

Sobral, a former senior VP, business operations at Fox Network Groups Europe and US, will report to Ward Platt, who joined Blue Ant as CEO, kids and global networks, when it set up its global networks division last year.

Within the Lat Am and US Hispanic sales group, Gualda will be responsible for affiliate sales and distribution in the region; Gaete will cover Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico; Berry will handle the Caribbean and US Hispanic region; and Galia will oversee sales in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Sobral, Gualda, Gaete, Berry and Galia will operate out of Blue Ant Media’s LA office.

Gualda and Berry both previously worked at ZooMoo, while Gaete has held roles at Telefonica in Chile and Galia was at Fox.

“As we continue to add scale to Blue Ant Media’s bouquet of premium channels available internationally, our newly appointed sales team will help drive sales for Love Nature, ZooMoo and Arcade Cloud in the Lat Am and US Hispanic region,” said Platt.

The firm last week promoted Jamie Schouela, executive VP of Canadian Media, to president.

The move followed a period of rapid change at Blue Ant in 2017, when long-serving CEO Raja Khanna and executive VP of content Vanessa Case both left.