ITVSGE hires MGM exec for Asia

MIPCOM: Japanese broadcasters have acquired more than 1,000 hours of programming from ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVSGE), which has hired a new senior sales manager for the Pacific Rim region.

Carla Ferry

Carla Ferry will be responsible for managing the Asia Pacific sales business and handing sales in Australia for ITVSGE.

She joins the company from MGM, where she was sales manager for Asia Pacific. Prior to this, she was an acquisitions manager for Foxtel Networks Australia and XYZnetworks.

Ferry, who reports to ITVSGE’s exec VP Sales for Asia Pacific Augustus Dulgaro, joins the company in time for Mipcom.

The news comes as ITVSGE licenses close to 700 hours of premium drama for ITV Collection, the ITV-branded programming block that launched last year on satellite broadcaster IMAGICA TV’s IMAGICA BS channel.

New content includes the first series of Poldark, Arthur & George, Mr Selfridge series two, Endeavour series one and The Doctor Blake Mysteries series one.

Meanwhile, AXN Mystery has picked up several ITVSGE crime franchises for its pay TV channel and SVoD service, including all eight series of Lewis, Vera series four and the first series of Shetland.

Hulu – now owned in Japan by Nippon TV – has taken the rights to drama Rectify on a life of series basis and Tohokushinsha has acquired a 30-hour package of new drama and entertainment content, including US show Aquarius starring David Duchovny and Thunderbirds documentary Filmed In Supermarionation.

In home entertainment, Talkie Magic has acquired the rights to the whole run of Inspector Morse, while Fieldworks has taken titles including The Prisoner.

The deals were brokered by Hilary Williams, ITVSGE’s sales executive for Japan, and Chikako Shibue from Intervision, ITVSGE’s TV sales agent in Japan.