Mélanie Ratté to head sales of formats, French programming at Sphere Abacus

Bell Media-backed UK distributor Sphere Abacus has appointed Mélanie Ratté as head of sales for formats and French programming and content partnerships.

Mélanie Ratté

The move follows the merger of Sphere Abacus’s parent Sphere Media with fellow Canadian production company Zone 3 at the end of last year.

In this newly created role, Ratté will be responsible for establishing and managing, within Sphere Abacus, a scripted and unscripted format/remake sales function, leveraging IP from the Sphere Media, Zone3 and Sphere Abacus libraries.

Reporting to Sphere Abacus MD Jonathan Ford, she will also lead worldwide sales of French Canadian programming across all genres from Sphere Media and Zone3, as well as selected third-party acquired titles.

In addition, Ratté will spearhead sales of the Sphere Media and Zone3 French programming libraries within Canada. The sales effort for the Sphere Abacus non-French scripted and unscripted slate continues to be led by head of sales Hana Palmer, reporting to Ford.

Patrick Di Lalla is also joining the team as project manager and will report directly to Ratté .

Ford said: “We are delighted to have a highly regarded and specialist talent such as Mélanie to take on this new and significant role. Working alongside the continued efforts of Hana Palmer and her sales team with our English-language programming slate, it is an important appointment for us and reflects our commitment to maximising the value of our combined content portfolios, while continuing to strengthen the global positioning of our content, talent and brand.”