BBC Studios merges APAC & EMEA operations, with Nick Percy named President

BBC Studios recently announced its decision to consolidate its Asia Pacific (APAC) and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) distribution regions into a single establishment, set to be led by Nick Percy. “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," Jon Penn and Paul Dempsey, President of global distribution, said. 

Percy will assume the role of president of global markets at BBC Studios starting 31 January next year, having led the company’s EMEA team since April 2020, following Jon Penn's departure. The new division, which will join the Americas and the UK as the third BBCS regional business, includes content sales, branded services and commercial ancillaries. “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,"  Dempsey continued.

Percyhas garnered experience through a set of roles acquired with BBC since 2010, which include exec VP for EMEA, exec VP for Western Europe, VP and general manager (GM) for Central and Eastern Europe, director of business development and digital, and head of strategy. Prior to that he held a number of strategy roles in government and commercial companies, including McKinsey & Company and Diageo. His experience of the APAC region includes living in Australia and worked on projects in Asia.

Regional commercial leads Phil Hardman, GM and senior VP Asia, Natasha Hussain, senior VP MENA, Ding Ke, GM Greater China, Fiona Lang, GM Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), Salim Mukaddam, senior VP content sales markets EMEA, and Arran Tindall, senior VP key markets EMEA, will report to Percy, who will be based in the UK. “Having represented both APAC and EMEA in some of our global deals, I understand the value in merging these two regions in to one powerful team with oversight of the whole business," Percy said.