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Discovery rejigs Animal Planet role

Nancy Daniels, chief brand officer at Discovery and factual, has had her role expanded at the US media giant as part of a restructure that will see the departure of Animal Planet president Susanna Dinnage.

Nancy Daniels

Daniels will oversee all factual content for Animal Planet and its services, including development, production, commissioning and windowing across linear and direct-to-consumer, in addition to her existing responsibilities.

Dinnage has been Discovery’s global president of Animal Planet since 2017. The news was first reported by Deadline.

The restructure comes one year after Dinnage was named as the CEO of football organisation the English Premier League, before she withdrew from the role a month later.

Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav explained the changes in an internal memo.

“As we thought about this new structure, we arrived at the difficult conclusion that there is no longer a need for a standalone president role for Animal Planet. Susanna Dinnage, who has been an integral and deeply valued member of our leadership team for a decade, is supportive of this decision and will step down from her role as global president of Animal Planet and leave Discovery at the end of the year,” said Zaslav.

“Susanna has made enormous contributions here, first in her role overseeing Discovery’s 14 UK brands and businesses and steering the London-based production and development department and, most recently, leading Animal Planet.”

Susanna Dinnage

“I have had an incredible decade at Discovery and been privileged to be part of such a purpose-driven, and truly global, company. As the world looks ever more closely at conservation, the past two years at Animal Plant have been particularly rewarding. It’s a very exciting time to be in the world of media and content and I look forward to the future,” said Dinnage.

Dinnage has spent more than two decades working in the television business, joining Discovery in 2009 and rising through the management of the broadcaster’s UK and Benelux business before being named the first global president of Animal Planet in November last year.

Daniels, formerly president of TLC, was made chief brand officer at Discovery and factual in early 2018, taking responsibility for all aspects of Discovery Channel and Science Channel, following Discovery Communications’ purchase of Scripps Networks Interactive.

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