BBC Studios creates new global markets division led by Nick Percy

The commercial and production arm of the BBC is to consolidate its Asia Pacific (APAC) and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) distribution regions into a single, unified business under the leadership of Nick Percy.

Nick Percy

Percy will assume the role of president of global markets at BBC Studios (BBCS) from January 31 next year, having led the company’s EMEA team since April 2020.

BBCS said in a statement that Jon Penn, the current exec VP for APAC, is stepping down having ruled himself out of applying for the new overall leadership role but will remain with the company next year to work on central projects and assist with the transition.

The new division, which will join the Americas and the UK as the third BBCS regional business, includes content sales, branded services and commercial ancillaries.

Percy previously has held a number of roles in BBCS since 2010, including exec VP for EMEA, exec VP for Western Europe, VP and general manager (GM) for Central and Eastern Europe, director of business development and digital, and head of strategy.

Prior to that he held a number of strategy roles in government and commercial companies, including McKinsey & Company and Diageo. His experience of the APAC region includes living in Australia and worked on projects in Asia.

Regional commercial leads Phil Hardman, GM and senior VP Asia, Natasha Hussain, senior VP MENA, Ding Ke, GM Greater China, Fiona Lang, GM Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), Salim Mukaddam, senior VP content sales markets EMEA, and Arran Tindall, senior VP key markets EMEA, will report to Percy, who will be based in the UK.

Jon Penn

Paul Dempsey, president of global distribution, said: “Nick is a strategic and talented leader who understands the complexities of the global markets regions and the focus for BBCS. I’m pleased that he is going to be leading the team through the next stage of our transformation.

“I’m grateful to Jon for his excellent leadership of the APAC region and before that the ANZ region, which saw the launch of BBC First, BBC Earth, Britbox and a production arm in Australia, achieved significant new carriage deals, saw the growth of Bluey into a huge international brand and closed multi-million-dollar framework deals in China. Both APAC and EMEA are in great shape to come together as a powerful global markets entity.”

Percy added: “Having represented both APAC and EMEA in some of our global deals, I understand the value in merging these two regions in to one powerful team with oversight of the whole business.

“There will be many benefits, as well as trade-offs to be made over the next few years as we invest in our branded services, balance our global and regional deals, offer more in direct-to-consumer and ramp up our digital deals.”