ITV to restructure global business

by Staff, Brand Republic 11-Mar-08, 10:50

LONDON - ITV is to restructure its global business and is proposing to merge Granada International and Granada Ventures into a single operation.

If the merger goes ahead, timetabled for this spring, it will bring ITV's, merchandise and licensing divisions together into one unified business.

The new business will continue to be led by Peter Iacono, president and managing director of ITV Worldwide who recently joined ITV from Sony Pictures in the US. He reports to Dawn Airey, managing director of ITV Global Content.

Airey said: "The merger makes real sense and demonstrates how serious we are about meeting our growth targets for this business. We are creating a bigger, better and more effective structure to allow us to grow our global content businesses further and faster."

As part of the proposed restructure, ITV will create the new position of commercial brand director for ITV Worldwide, with strengthened brand and product development teams reporting into the director.

The commercial brand director will have key responsibility for exploiting content across multiple platforms and territories, working closely with colleagues in ITV Productions, ITV Group Marketing and the ITV Network.

The announcement follows yesterday's news that Nadine Nohr, managing director of Granada International, is to leave the company.

ITV is currently in consultation with other members of staff that will be affected by the move.

Iacono said: "This is a key structural move that allows us to create a stronger and more unified global exploitation team, building on the great success the GI and GV teams have delivered over the last few years."

ITV Worldwide is made up of the former Granada International and Granada Ventures businesses and sells thousands of hours of programming from ITV Productions, and other independent producers, to more than 200 countries worldwide.

The business includes Granada America, one of the biggest international producers for the US market and is behind Fox's 'Hell’s Kitchen', 'Nanny 911' and 'Kitchen Nightmares'.