MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC?s commercial arm BBC Worldwide has announced that Jon Penn, currently FremantleMedia Enterprises CEO Asia Pacific, is to take up the new role of BBC Worldwide Australasia MD in April.

Penn succeeds former GM Tony Iffland and interim leader Blair McQuade, but will see his responsibilities broadened to include ownership of the region?s P&L under BBC Worldwide?s new Balanced Regionalisation plans, which aims to significantly increase revenue in the territory within the next five years. He will report directly to BBC Worldwide?s President of the UK, Australasia Marcus Arthur, who is based in London.

Also being announced today is BBC Worldwide Australasia?s interim GM Blair McQuade?s appointment as chief commercial officer for Australasia, a new role supporting Jon, which will see him take responsibility for the commercial activities across the business.

BBC Worldwide adds that Australia and New Zealand are hugely important markets for it and both have seen growth over the last five years, across all five areas of business: channels; sales and distribution; content and production; consumer products; and global brands. BBC Worldwide?s strategic aim to increase its regional focus, which will begin on 2 April next, will enable the company to maximise growth across all platforms in the local market.

In 2011/12, BBC Worldwide Australasia increased revenue by nine per cent on the previous year, generating $140 million. Recent new business success stories include the launch of the global BBC iPlayer pilot in Australia, where it is the most successful territory, and the growth of live events, with 100,000 people expected to attend one of five live events in the year.

Penn founded FremantleMedia Enterprises? brand licensing and interactive media division in Australia in 2001 and his responsibilities later expanded to include the rest of Asia Pacific. He was particularly instrumental in turning MasterChef Australia into a multi-million dollar, multi-platform brand over three years and his career has seen him launch new business enterprises across both traditional and digital media platforms, delivering overall revenue growth for FremantleMedia Enterprises in the Asia Pacific region.

Promoted to CEO FremantleMedia Enterprises Asia Pacific in 2009, he added TV distribution, home entertainment and live events to his responsibilities and led the team who has built multi-platform brand franchises out of The X Factor, QI, Grand Designs and Merlin, amongst many marquee TV properties.

Prior to FremantleMedia Enterprises, Penn worked for Fairfax Media?s digital division - Fairfax Digital - and has held a variety of sales, marketing and business development roles over his 22 year career.

Arthur said, "I?m really pleased that Jon has decided to take up our challenge as MD of Australasia, a role that will have increased responsibility in BBC Worldwide?s new organisational structure. His strategic influence across so many platforms, properties and brands at FremantleMedia is impressive, not least because of the outstanding commercial growth he?s drawn from them. I know he?s the right person to lead BBC Worldwide Australasia on to bigger and even better things as the region takes charge of its own P&L for the first time."

Penn said, "I?m thrilled to be given the opportunity to guide BBC Worldwide Australasia through such a pivotal point in its history. I have nothing but admiration for the business and I look forward to building upon the huge success already achieved by its talented workforce and building upon Blair?s brilliant leadership since Tony Iffland departed."

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide America, Sales & Distribution, has announced a syndication deal with US public television stations for the British crime drama series, ?DCI Banks?.

The show will be available on 166 stations, reaching an estimated 77 per cent of US TV households.

The syndication deal includes the show?s pilot and seasons 1 and 2. DCI Banks will premiere on public television stations across the US, including WUSF Tampa, Kera Dallas and KCET Los Angeles, starting this month.

?DCI Banks? is a crime drama series. It follows lead character, veteran Detective Chief Inspector, Alan Banks, on his passionate and relentless journey in pursuit of criminals and justice, which inevitably leads him to take dark and treacherous paths to solve crimes. DCI Banks stars Stephen Tompkinson as Alan Banks, Andrea Lowe and Caroline Catz.

BBC Worldwide America VP PBS Sales Julius Cain said, "DCI Banks is a terrific and suspenseful show which we believe will attract a wide range of viewers in the U.S. This syndication deal marks the largest we have inked to date between BBC Worldwide America and public television stations and is evidence of the great interest in the top-notch and skillfully produced programs we offer our clients."

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide has appointed Amanda Hill as chief brands officer to develop global business.

The appointment is a part of a restructuring from divisional to geographic lines of management, and also BBC?s ongoing strategy to maximise the value of its assets outside the UK.

The new position, still reeling from the management blunders that led to the resignation of Director General George Entwistle, is designed to play a key role in enabling BBC Worldwide to build and develop global brands such as Top Gear, BBC Earth, Doctor Who, Dancing with the Stars, BBC Knowledge, CBeebies and the Global iPlayer.

Hill is currently managing director of BBC Earth.

As part of the BBC?s senior executive team, Hill will be tasked with developing, segmenting and managing the current brand portfolio of 14 BBC Global brands while also developing and building new BBC brands to protect and develop future brand revenue growth.

Hill said, "I?m absolutely thrilled to be taking up the role of chief brands officer. The BBC is one of the greatest broadcasters and the most trusted brands in the world and I passionately about the role it plays internationally and here in the UK. With the rise of truly global digital channels, now is an incredible time to bring the BBC to the world and the world to the BBC."

BBC Worldwide interim CEO Paul Dempsey said, "I?m delighted to announce Amanda?s appointment as chief brands officer for BBC Worldwide. She has an outstanding record in growing brands such as Walking with Dinosaurs and BBC Earth, and I have no doubt that she is the right person to build and develop our core brands around the world. She will take up the post early in the New Year and will play a key role in bringing us closer to our global audiences as we drive forward our restructuring plans."

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide Channels has launched three of its channels, BBC Entertainment, BBC World News and BBC Lifestyle, on newly launched Indonesian pay TV platform, max3.

max3 is the retail brand of Biznet Networks, a leading telecommunication and multimedia operator in Indonesia whose services currently include unlimited broadband internet service and pay TV services.

With the debut of BBC Entertainment in Indonesia, the full suite of BBC?s channels will now be available in the country.

?Indonesia is a very important part of BBC Worldwide?s growth strategy in Asia, and we are very pleased to be working with Biznet to launch our channels on their new platform,? commented BBC Worldwide Channels Asia SVP and GM Mark Whitehead. ?We are confident that the high quality and award winning programmes on BBC Entertainment, together with BBC World News and BBC Lifestyle will be popular with max3?s viewers.?

2012 has been a year of tremendous growth for BBC World News. "The channel surpassed the 300 million household figure in May, and several international news events of the year allowed BBC World News to do what it does best. That Biznet sees the value in carrying us in what is a strategic Asian market does not come as a surprise. We look forward to working with them to build the BBC World News brand in Indonesia, especially as we are about to move into new state-of-the art studios in London,? said BBC Global New Director Distribution Colin Lawrence.

?We are very happy that three of the BBC channels will join us when we launch our platform. We are confident that high quality content is a key factor in driving our subscription growth. We are confident that BBC World News, BBC Lifestyle and BBC Entertainment will make max3?s offerings even stronger and more sought after by our subscribers," said Biznet Networks President Director Adi Kusma.

MUMBAI: ?Space Dive?, the documentary charting Felix Baumgartner?s record-breaking skydive, has been snapped up by broadcasters across the globe with BBC Worldwide licensing the documentary to 13 countries.

Belgium (VRT), Denmark (DR), Finland (YLE), Germany (RTL), Holland (VPRO), France (France 4), Russia (Russia 2), Norway (NRK), Singapore (Channel News Asia), Korea (Chosun), Poland (TVP), Indonesia (Kompas TV) and Canada (Sportsnet) are all set to screen the documentary which contains exclusive never-before-seen footage charting Felix Baumgartner?s remarkable mission.

BBC Worldwide president, MD for sales, distribution Steve Macallister said, ?Felix Baumgartner?s space dive was a truly extraordinary event played out in front of a global audience. Now with the ?Space Dive? documentary viewers all over the world will have the chance to step behind-the-scenes and see just what went into this epic mission and experience the jump through Baumgartner?s eyes.?

On 14 October Felix Baumgartner jumped from 128,100 feet (39,045 metres) above the Earth?s surface, completing the highest and fastest freefall ever and becoming the first person to skydive through the sound barrier.

Featuring footage from 20 cameras covering the jump itself, ?Space Dive? reveals the moment when Felix lost control, spinning dangerously back to Earth. The documentary also tells how hours earlier the team came close to aborting the mission, and moves back in time to show the four years of preparation and training that turned Felix from a base jumper into an extreme altitude specialist.

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide Channels has unveiled a new addition to the slate of original productions for its BBC-branded portfolio around the world, ?Best In Town?.

The new series is the business? first fully-funded production with an independent production company since the announcement in September to treble the number of original programme hours ordered for its international audience.

Commissioned from Richard Bacon?s production company Mox Productions, which operates within Sebastian Scott?s Predictable production hub, ?Best in Town? sets three local business owners from the same area against each other in a battle to see who is "the best" operator in town. Featuring a diverse range of characters running familiar businesses, this competitive new factual entertainment series will air on BBC Entertainment and BBC HD in key territories from 2013.

The title has been ordered by Tracy Forsyth, VP, Commissioning, as part of her plan to treble the number of original hours ordered for BBC Knowledge, BBC Entertainment, BBC Lifestyle and UKTV (BBC Worldwide?s general entertainment channel in Australia and New Zealand) in 2012, with the aim of increasing the number of original hours on the channels to 100 by 2014. More major productions will be unveiled later this year.

Created with global audiences in mind, ?Best in Town? builds on one part of Forsyth?s twin track commissioning strategy; to order both international formats which will air in all markets, alongside local productions targeting individual markets.

Forsyth said, "We believe that the competition between passionate business owners in Best in Town will provide fertile territory for creating some truly entertaining moments in this returnable factual entertainment format. We think this desire to be the best is universal and will be of great appeal to our global audience."

BBC Worldwide Channels acting MD David Weiland said, "BBC Worldwide is committed to sourcing the best content from the UK production community and reflecting the most recent global trends. This new series is the sort of high-quality, innovative programming our global audience has come to expect from the BBC."

?Best in Town? sees three real life competitors from the same type of business battle it out for honours in the same area. The series challenges the entrepreneurs to use all their knowledge and business sense when they come face to face with their fellow traders for the first time. After the competitors have visited and assessed each other?s businesses and faced their ultimate challenge, a mystery shopper will put their customer service skills to the test. With the winner revealed, the business owners must meet again, shake the winner by the hand and admit that they are the "best in town".

Best in Town will air from next year on BBC Entertainment in Asia, Africa Latin America, Poland and the Nordic region and BBC HD in EMEA and Latin America.
In September, BBC Worldwide Channels had outlined plans to bolster its original programming slate, through a combination of fully funded series and co-productions from the BBC?s in-house productions teams, as well as the independent production community.