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BBCS reshuffles top team, recruits

BBC Studios (BBCS) in the UK is rejigging its management structure, handing chief creative officer Mark Linsey a new remit and recruiting two senior executives.

Mark Linsey

Linsey will remain in his current role but will take over much of chief content officer Helen Jackson’s responsibilities, after Jackson revealed earlier this year she would be leaving.

Linsey will work across BBCS’s portfolio of production relationships, managing partnerships with indies and BBC Studios Production.

The changes mean Linsey is relinquishing his responsibilities as BBCS’s production lead, with a new director of content being recruited to oversee the UK side of production.

That exec will work alongside Anna Mallett, MD of BBCS Production, who will oversee BBCS Production’s Business and Operations arm, as well as International Production & Formats. Both roles will report to BBCS CEO Tim Davie.

Linsey’s new remit will also see him oversee BBCS’s Content Partnerships team, which is being revamped with three new leadership roles being created.

Liam Keelan, currently director of scripted in the content partnerships team, takes the scripted portfolio director role, while Mark Reynolds assumes the unscripted position, having been director of unscripted.

An executive is being sought to take the job of new form portfolio director, who will lead editorial strategy for content and platforms.

The trio, which will report to Linsey, will be responsible for providing creative and commercial support to BBCS’s production partners, and to bring in new talent and develop new content opportunities.

Davie said: “The media customer market has already changed so much, specifically in the digital space, and we are also seeing competitors increasingly looking to strike deals directly with the creative talent.

“It’s imperative that we continue to develop our IP pipeline,” he said, adding that Linsey’s “more than 20 years’ experience in the indie sector and his variety of senior roles within the BBC” would “afford us the greatest opportunity to develop this area of our business significantly under his direction.”

Linsey said: “We are entering a golden age of partnerships now – we must be offering market-leading creative and commercial partnership to a thriving portfolio of creative assets.

“These changes will put us in a much stronger position to develop the very strongest relationships with British talent and deliver the best creative content for our audiences and our customers.

“We are going to be a better, bolder, braver partner to the industry, working with new talent, new content, and new platforms. And our Content Partnerships Group will be key to achieving that.”

BBCS’s production division reported a small profit earlier this month in its first year of trading, which came before it merged with fellow commercial arm BBC Worldwide.

The enlarged group, dubbed BBC Studios, is behind more than 2,000 hours of programming including Blue Planet II and has secured a raft of third-party commissions such as Stargazing Live 2 for ABC in Australia.

The company also holds a number of stakes in UK companies, including The Durrells prodco Sid Gentle Films and full ownership of UK-based Lookout Point, which it first invested in four years ago.

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