Blue Ant hires ex-Sky Studios factual director

Canada’s Blue Ant Rights has hired Sky Studios’ former director of factual Barnaby Shingleton as its senior vice-president of acquisitions.

Shingleton, whose appointment comes ahead of Lilla Hurst’s departure at the end of the year, will lead Blue Ant Studios’ global acquisitions strategy with a remit to expand relationships with producers, broadcasters and partners worldwide.

He formally starts 6 January, based in London, and reports into Mark Bishop, co-president of Blue Ant Studios.

Shingleton, who previously worked for Zodiak Rights and Sky Vision, was most recently working for Sky Studios before stepping down last year, as revealed by Broadcast.

There, he had responsibility for overseeing the company’s wholly owned unscripted production companies across the UK and US, including Love Productions and Jupiter Entertainment.

Shingleton now takes on part of the remit previously held by Hurst, who had been global head of acquisitions and content strategy at Blue Ant Studios.

Hurst revealed in September she would be stepping down at the end of the year, having been with the company following its acquisition of Drive Media Rights, which she co-founded with Ben Barrett. 

Bishop described Shingleton as having “a proven track record of building premium content businesses and delivering global-scale results.”

He added: “His deep experience across content monetization and international distribution makes him a natural fit for Blue Ant as we continue to grow as a public company and expand our global rights and acquisitions strategy.”

Shingleton said: “Blue Ant has built a strong global reputation for premium storytelling and creative ambition, and I’m looking forward to working with the talented teams to expand the acquisitions strategy, and help bring compelling stories to audiences globally.”

Additionally, Valentina Daley has been promoted to vice-president of acquisitions & production executive, reporting into Shingleton.

She will oversee all US and Canadian producer relationships for third-party acquisitions, as well as acting as production executive on third party series commissioned through the studio.

Blue Ant has been in expansion mode over the past 12 months, acquiring Highway Thru Hell firm Thunderbird for C$89m in November and factual streaming firm MagellanTV for $12m (£9m) in October. 

That followed the Toronto-based company’s reverse takeover of Boat Rocker Media earlier in the year.

Chief exec Michael MacMillan told Broadcast International he was looking at more M&A activity to “turbocharge” the business. The company also recently renewed its content partnership with Sky for natural history channel Sky Nature, as revealed by Broadcast International.