Karl Warner, the previous Channel 4 digital exec, has joined BBC Studios as Executive Vice President of UK Entertainment and Digital Development.
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Working with the lately fashioned BBC Studios Global Entertainment division will type a brand new staff targeted on creating new IP and codecs for the BBC in addition to different UK and world platforms.
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He can even work with Global Entertainment groups all over the world, particularly within the U.S., to reimagine worldwide concepts for the UK market. These would then be produced by the brand new BBC Studios Entertainment division led by MD for UK Entertainment Suzy Lamb.
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A 3rd prong to his function will see him search to assist create new labels and assist current BBC Studios corporations such because the lately launched Rebel Rebel Pictures.
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The function begins in November.
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The transfer marks a return again to the BBC, the place he was beforehand a commissioning editor. Warner exited his earlier function as Head of Youth and Digital at UK community Channel 4 as a part of a sequence of cuts earlier this 12 months. We first reported on his anticipated exit in February and the affirmation adopted a month later. Caroline Hollick, Channel 4’s former drama chief, resurfaced in a brand new UK function at The North Road Company final week.
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In Warner’s new function at BBC Studios, he’ll report into Matt Forde, the Global Entertainment Managing Director.
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Warner has labored in senior trade positions within the UK for the previous 15 Yeats, holding his commissioning roles on the BBC and Channel 4 and working his personal indie, Electric Ray, with backing from Sony Pictures Entertainment. Further again, he held roles at NBCUniversal-owned Monkey Kingdom and at Endemol, the place he labored on Big Brother. While on the Beeb, he was a part of the in-house staff that developed Strictly Come Dancing‘s return in 2004
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He had joined Channel 4 in 2018 as Controller of youth-skewing community E4 and oversaw the leisure division, engaged on offers for the likes of Taskmaster and I Literally Just Told You. He additionally labored on present E4 hit Married at First Sight UK.
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“I’m delighted that someone of Karl’s experience and inventiveness has joined BBC Studios to help us supercharge our ambitions,” mentioned BBC Studios’ Forde. “Establishing a flexible hub of creative talent to develop UK hit shows across multiple platforms with an innovative, global, and future-looking approach for audiences has been a priority since setting up Global Entertainment. I can’t wait to see what he and the new team working across the UK and world create.”
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Warner added: “After over a decade, I’m thrilled to be back at the BBC with a new global perspective and joining BBC Studios in a creative leadership role at such an exciting time. With its huge scale, rich catalogue of IP and second to none Talent relationships, I can’t think of a better place to be, creating new ideas that speak to the next generation of audiences, alongside Suzy and the amazing teams in the group.”
