NBCUI appoints for EMEA hub

NBCUniversal International (NBCUI) has unveiled a regional hub for its distribution and network operations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and promoted two execs to oversee it.

Satpal Brainch takes the newly created role of MD of distribution and networks EMEA and will lead the company’s TV business across EMEA from the hub’s London base. Brainch, who was previously exec VP and MD of NBCUI Networks, will report to Belinda Menendez, president of NBCUI Distribution & Networks.

Carolyn Stalins has been appointed senior VP of distribution for EMEA and will relocate to London from Paris, where she had been MD of Southern Europe for distribution and networks. She will lead NBCUI’s content distribution across the region, reporting to Brainch, with both appointments effective immediately.

The move aligns NBCUI’s distribution and networks businesses in the regions and follows similar integration of the firm’s businesses in Latin America and Asia.

Menendez said the new-look EMEA structure “is a key milestone… ensuring that we are optimally positioned to harness opportunities across the region for both distribution and networks.”

Meanwhile Don McGregor, exec VP for international distribution, has extended his remit to include maximising the company’s sales strategy and will relocate from London to LA to collaborate more closely with the company’s LA-based functions including product, marketing and research.

Last month NBCUI Studios relocated Tom Coan, one of its senior LA-based programming executives, to London to bolster the company’s scripted division, which is developing US-style procedurals after agreeing a pan-European deal with broadcasters.