Blue Ant Rights taps Barnaby Shingleton to expand acquisitions strategy

Blue Ant Studios’ distribution arm has appointed veteran content executive Barnaby Shingleton as senior VP of acquisitions.

Barnaby Shingleton

Shingleton joins Blue Ant Rights to lead its global acquisitions strategy, deepening relationships with producers, broadcasters and partners worldwide.

Reporting to Mark Bishop, co-president, Blue Ant Studios, and based in the company’s London office as of January 6, he will work with the studio’s production, distribution and channel teams to expand the company’s catalogue.

Shingleton brings more than 25 years of experience across global distribution, production, broadcast and development, having held senior leadership roles at Sky Studios, Sky Vision, and Zodiak Rights.

At these companies he is credited with being instrumental in building and scaling international distribution strategies and overseeing the development, financing and sale of premium unscripted and entertainment content.

Most recently, as director of factual at Sky Studios, Shingleton was responsible for overseeing Sky’s wholly owned unscripted production companies across the UK and US, including Love Productions and Jupiter Entertainment.

During his tenure at Sky, he delivered Sky Original documentaries and series through innovative financing and international coproduction partnerships, developed high-end documentary slates and expanded international catalogues.

Additionally, Valentina Daley has been promoted to VP of acquisitions and production executive, and will be reporting to Shingleton.

In this role, she will oversee all US and Canadian producer relationships for third party acquisitions in addition to acting as production executive on third party series commissioned through the studio.

Blue Ant Rights represents over 8,000 hours of content from Blue Ant Studios and third-party producers,

“Barnaby is an exceptional executive with a proven track record of building premium content businesses and delivering global-scale results,” said Bishop.

“His deep experience across content monetisation and international distribution makes him a natural fit for Blue Ant as we continue to grow as a public company and expand our global rights and acquisitions strategy.”