Granada International, Granada Ventures to Merge

LONDON, March
11: ITV Worldwide’s president and managing director, Peter Iacono has announced
a proposal to combine the company’s distribution arm, Granada International,
and its merchandising and licensing unit, Granada Ventures, into one unified
business.

If the
proposals move ahead, Granada International and Granada Ventures will merge
later this spring into a single entity. The unified business would continue to
be led by Iacono, who recently joined ITV from Sony Pictures in the U.S. He
reports to Dawn Airey, the managing director of ITV Global Content.

The proposed
restructure will also involve the creation of the new position of commercial
brand director of ITV Worldwide, with brand and product development teams
reporting to the director. The commercial brand director will have
responsibility for the 360-degree exploitation of content across multiple
platforms and territories, working closely with colleagues in ITV Productions,
ITV Group Marketing and the ITV Network.

This proposed
restructure follows the recently announced departure of Nadine Nohr, the
managing director of Granada International. ITV is currently in consultation
with other impacted members of staff.

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.”

Iacono added,
“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."

—By Irene
Lew