Panda fills development, editor roles

Moira Ross’s new entertainment label Panda Television, part of UK-based Objective Media Group, has made two key appointments to its management team.

Moira Ross

Stefan Iriarte comes in as head of development while Ed Booth is the new editor of entertainment.

Iriarte created ITV’s Big Star’s Little Star and Freeze Out as well as the BBC’s Pressure Pad.

Booth was series producer on both The Voice and Strictly Come Dancing and worked on So You Think You Can Dance and Andrew Lloyd Webber talent shows How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria, Any Dream Will Do and I’d Do Anything for the channel.

All3Media-owned Objective Media Group launched Panda in January and brought in former Wall to Wall head of entertainment Ross to run the operation as chief creative officer.

“Ed has earned his BBC1 primetime stripes whilst Stef is a proper ideas man. It’s a big challenge to find an entertainment format that can capture the heart and imagination of the nation the way the likes of The Voice and Strictly Come Dancing have in the past, but I believe we could do just that,” Ross said.

While at Wall to Wall, Ross exec produced The Voice for five seasons plus other hit shows. Prior to that she was editor of BBC Format Entertainment where she helped relaunch Strictly Come Dancing in 2010.

Panda Television’s launch followed that of Second Star Productions, another Objective label focused on factual entertainment and led by Deborah Sergeant, last year.