Engine steams ahead with sales appointment

Engine Entertainment, the fledgling production and distribution outfit set up by TV sales veteran Chris Philip, has made another hire, bringing the founder of Ganesh Entertainment to its sales team.

Paulette Bensussen joins as senior VP of sales and business development, reporting directly to CEO Philip. She is responsible for looking after Engine’s international sales catalogue. She brings with her reality, health and lifestyle shows such as HGTV’s Holmes on Homes, and over 400 hours of telenovela programming. She will also work globally on developing new business with networks and prodcos.

Bensussen formed New York indie Ganesh in 2007, and went on to work with Al Gore’s Current TV network. Before then, she was executive director of international development at Scripps Networks, where she worked on the global expansion of its IPTV services.

Her hire comes on the back of Engine’s appointment of Michel Rodrigue, the former CEO of Distraction Formats, in a consultancy role that will see him take Engine’s first format Thumb Wars to MipTV. The show has been taking a 31% overall market share on South African network SABC.

Engine, which former Power distribution chief Philip set up last month, has a debut distribution slate that includes The Bellator Fighting Championships, Young Hollywood and two shows from the Zalman King Collection.