Kate Ward handed enlarged remit, while Matt Forde takes on new international role
BBC Studios Productions chief Zai Bennett is overhauling its unscripted and international operations with an expanded role for factual chief Kate Ward and “investment” into Matt Forde’s team, Broadcast International has learned.
Ward, who was managing director of factual at the BBC’s commercial arm, will lead the newly minted Unscripted Productions business, which merges the factual, UK entertainment and entertainment development divisions into a single entity.
The former Vice exec, who joined BBCS in 2022, is tasked with leveraging the organisation’s scale, as well talent, commissioner and buyer relationships, across factual and entertainment.
Labels under her purview range from the Natural History Unit and Science Unit to Specialist Factual Productions, Documentary Unit, BBC Studios UK Entertainment.
She will also work with labels and invested indies such as Voltage TV, Mothership TV, Samphire Films and Mettlemouse Entertainment.
Ward’s factual slate includes NBC Universal’s natural history series The Americas and forthcoming Walking with Dinosaurs for the BBC, while she has also overseen acquisitions of Voltage TV and partnerships with Samphire, Mothership and Bango Studios.
The rejig will see BBCS managing director of UK entertainment, Suzy Lamb, and Karl Warner, exec vice-president of UK entertainment and digital development, reporting directly into Bennett.
They remain focused on creating formats and franchises, whilst also working to Ward on the overall strategy for the entertainment business.
Lamb’s team produces over 1,000 hours of content every year with titles such as Strictly Come Dancing, The One Show, Glastonbury coverage, The Weakest Link and Dragons’ Den, with Warner and team tasked with developing new hits.
Global rejig
Bennett is also looking to fuel additional growth in key non-UK markets by promising “resource and investment” to scale BBCS’s production strategy outside the UK.
Matt Forde, who was managing director of global entertainment, is now president of the newly created Global Production entity, which aims to accelerate production activity outside the UK.
BBCS said this part of the business represented a “vital growth area” over the next five years.
Forde, who continues to report into Bennett, has helped BBCS expand with local producer acquisitions including STV in the Nordics, Brutal in Spain and Werner Films in Australia, as well as growing a slate of tentpole formats such as The 1% Club, Ghosts, and The Honesty Box.
International managing directors, including LA-based Ryan O’Dowd, will continue to report to Forde, Broadcast International understands.
Creative director Sumi Connock will also continue to report to Forde on format exploitation, while working with Ward across the broader unscripted global formats strategy and acquisition of third-party unscripted formats.
Ward is responsible for both the P&L and overall success of all of Unscripted Productions and retains reporting lines for all factual units and labels.
There are no job losses resulting from the changes, which marks one of the first major moves from Bennett, who took over as BBCS Productions chief exec and chief creative officer last year, as revealed by Broadcast.
Bennett told Broadcast International the rejig had been motivated by greater demand for its unscripted programming, “so a single Unscripted business gives us an incredibly potent offering for the market - and it’s the right moment to significantly increase our international production footprint.”
He added: “I’m thrilled that the collective creative and commercial expertise and experience of Kate, Matt, Suzy and Karl will be leading this charge, and I couldn’t ask for better leaders to empower our amazing teams to deliver even greater success.”
Ward said the new Unscripted Productions unit offered “unrivalled expertise” across entertainment, natural history, science, factual entertainment, live events and documentary.
“It’s an honour to be taking on this new role, and I’ll strive to support all of our units, labels and invested indies to even greater success, producing genre defining new shows, whilst continuing to deliver our existing slate of some of the UK’s most loved, successful and impactful programmes.”
Forde added: “I couldn’t be more excited to deepen our production presence globally with our local offices.
“We’ve seen rapid growth over the last three years internationally and increasing the number of markets BBC Studios operates in is vital if we’re to leverage a truly global creative network and produce even more format hits - as well as creating original content for local audiences across the world.”
All changes take place with immediate effect.
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