Bennett resurfaces at OZY Media

Jana Bennett, former head of BBC Television and president of cablenet History, has resurfaced at youth-skewing digital news outfit OZY Media to lead a drive into TV and podcasts.

Jana Bennett

Bennett was president of A+E Networks’ History channel when she announced her departure after four years with the US cablenet’s operator in 2017. She had previously led the launch of FYI for the company in the US.

Prior to A+E, Bennett had a 30-year career at the BBC and was president of worldwide networks and the global iPlayer. She also headed up TLC for Discovery Communications during its transformation.

She subsequently launched independent consultancy and production outfit JebRoc Media in New York and London and has now joined OZY Media as executive-at-large and senior advisor.

The four-year-old Californian firm has previously sold TV shows to PBS (The Contenders: 16 for 16), BBC (Third Rail with OZY), Amazon (Breaking Big) and Facebook (Take on America) and said it has a further six projects in development for the small screen. Bennett will help it drive growth in television and podcasts.

OZY co-founder and CEO Carlos Watson said: “We have seen our television and podcast businesses explode in the past year. The industry has responded extremely well to our wide range of content and the high production quality.

“Jana is precisely the type of leader who can build on OZY’s early success in TV and podcasts thus far, and help us reach new heights.”

Bennett said: “Having seen the phenomenal way OZY Media has grown a distinctive voice in news, TV and digital media, I found the opportunity to work with Carlos and OZY’s talented leadership and editorial team was irresistible.

“OZY is a brand that has so many attractive projects in the pipeline, great journalism you can trust and a young, savvy, loyal audience who follows OZY across all media and live events.”