BBC Studios is to consolidate its APAC and EMEA Distribution regions into a single, unified business under the leadership of Nick Percy as president, global markets from 31 January 2022.
The new division, which will join the Americas and the UK as the third BBC Studios’ regional business, includes content sales, branded services and commercial ancillaries.
Nick Percy has led the EMEA region since April 2020, having held a number of roles in BBC Studios since 2010, including EVP for EMEA, EVP for Western Europe, VP and GM for Central and Eastern Europe, director of business development & digital, and head of strategy. Prior to this Percy held a number of strategy roles in government and commercial companies, including McKinsey & Company and Diageo. Percy has experience of the APAC region, having previously lived in Australia and worked on projects in Asia.
Jon Penn, the current EVP of APAC, ruled himself out of applying for the leadership role, but will remain with the company next year to work on central projects, as well as helping with the transition.
Paul Dempsey, president global distribution, said: “Nick is a strategic and talented leader who understands the complexities of the global markets regions and the focus for BBC Studios moving forward. I’m pleased that he is going to be leading the team through the next stage of our transformation.
“I’m grateful to Jon for his excellent leadership of the APAC region and before that the ANZ region, which saw the launch of BBC First, BBC Earth, BritBox and a production arm in Australia, achieved significant new carriage deals, saw the growth of Bluey into a huge international brand and closed multi-million dollar framework deals in China. Both APAC and EMEA are in great shape to come together as a powerful global markets entity.”
Nick Percy
Nick Percy said: “Having represented both APAC and EMEA in some of our global deals, I understand the value in merging these two regions into one powerful team with oversight of the whole business. There will be many benefits, as well as trade-offs to be made, over the next few years, as we invest in our branded services, balance our global and regional deals, offer more in direct-to-consumer and ramp up our digital deals. I’m delighted to be working with the six regional SVPs and GMs and their local teams to accelerate our growth.”
Jon Penn added: “I’ve loved my time leading the APAC region and before that, setting up and growing the ANZ regional business. I’ve been fortunate to work with such an incredible brand, team and customer base as we have ridden the wave of digital transformation in the content industry. It’s been a part of my career that I’m very proud of, but now I’m ready for my next challenge and can do this in the knowledge that the business and team is in very safe hands.”
Percy and Penn will continue to lead EMEA and APAC until the new global markets region comes into effect on 31 January. Regional commercial leads Phil Hardman (GM & SVP Asia), Natasha Hussain (SVP MENA), Ding Ke (GM Greater China), Fiona Lang (GM ANZ), Salim Mukaddam (SVP Content Sales Markets EMEA) and Arran Tindall (SVP Key Markets EMEA) will report to Percy, who will be based in the UK.
See also: BBC Studios in 2021: From Bake Off to Bluey and Sir David Attenborough