LONDON: Endemol Worldwide Distribution, bringing together the Endemol International and Southern Star International program catalogues, is set to launch at MIPCOM, led by Cathy Payne as CEO.
The launch of the new division at the Endemol Group follows the company’s acquisition of Australia’s Southern Star. Endemol Worldwide Distribution will be home to 20,000 hours of content across multiple genres, including drama, reality TV, game shows, entertainment, kids’ programming, animation and comedy.
Payne will manage the business, with a team that includes Matt Creasey, the executive sales director for the Americas, Asia and Australia/New Zealand; and Veronique Verges, the executive sales director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Both Creasey and Verges, reporting to Payne, will be based at Endemol’s offices in London and will each lead their own team of sales executives. Also in the London office are James Braham, sales director for Eastern and Central Europe; Holly Winder, sales director for Nordic territories and Cristina Sala, sales director for Latin America.
In addition, Endemol Worldwide Distribution is opening new regional offices in Paris and Madrid, with Rome following later in 2009 and Los Angeles and Miami in 2010. Operating out of Paris will be Claire Taltas as sales director for Benelux and French speaking territories. In Madrid, Gisela Asimus-Minnbergh takes the post of sales director for Spain, Portugal, Italy and Africa. In Hong Kong, Daniel Edwards is sales director for Asia and the Middle East. In Sydney, Kirsten Cargill will serve as sales Director for Australia, New Zealand and brand manager for Hi-5. The company is looking to name an acquisitions executive, based in Los Angeles, in the coming months to focus on increasing third-party producer representation from North America.
Announcing the new division, Payne said" "Following Endemol’s acquisition of Southern Star at the beginning of the year we have been working on establishing a world leading distribution operation that will offer a first class service to broadcasters and both internal and third party producers alike. We are extremely excited about the launch of Endemol Worldwide Distribution and I couldn’t have greater confidence in the team we have assembled, which is among the very best in the business."
Tom Toumazis, the chief commercial officer at the Endemol Group, added: “The launch of Endemol Worldwide Distribution is a transformational development for our global business. It creates an operation that is plugged directly into the resources one of the world’s largest production networks and which is capable of delivering a service that few in the industry can match. The new division will debut with a fantastic line up of new Endemol shows and third-party product this MIPCOM and we are looking forward to making a lot of noise in Cannes."
