Ruth Berry to lead both ITVS commercial divisions

ITV Studios’ Chief Operating Officer David McGraynor has promoted Ruth Berry (currently MD, Global Distribution) to lead both of ITV Studios’ global commercial divisions.

Global Entertainment is responsible for international unscripted format sales and exploitation across the group while Global Distribution focuses on the international distribution of drama and the finished tape versions of all other ITV Studios and third party programmes.

Due to the rejig, which brings together Global Distribution and Global Entertainment under one leadership and organisational structure, Arjan Pomper is stepping down as Managing Director of GE.

The bringing together of Global Distribution and Global Entertainment under a single leadership team will “enable ITV Studios to align more closely with buyers and reflects the evolution of the global market with the growth of the streaming platforms, on-going market consolidation and the adoption by many buyers of a single buying approach across all genres.”

During her decade with ITV Studios, and in particular her six-year tenure as Managing Director, Berry has overseen the transformation of the predominantly English-language content sales (with a factual specialism), to a global distributor of English and European language drama, alongside a portfolio of non-scripted titles. Prior to joining ITV Studios, Berry was at Shine International where she was SVP, Head of EMEA and at The Walt Disney Company where her roles included Head of Branded Services and Digital Media Distribution, EMEA.

Berry will now lead the distribution and monetization of the catalogue of 90,000 hours with 285 formats which includes hit titles Love Island, My Mum Your Dad, Maternal, The Voice and Line of Duty. The sales teams will remain positioned around the world with dedicated format and finished programming teams based in Holland, UK, US, Australia and Singapore.

David McGraynor said: “Ruth has been instrumental in building our commercial business and partnering with our clients globally. She has a deep knowledge of what our partners need and we look forward to on-going growth as she leads the two divisions.

I’d like to thank Arjan for the significant contribution he has played in shaping and delivering the strategy for Global Entertainment. Under his leadership he has created a great team that has delivered impressive financial and operational performance.”

Arjan Pomper added: “I am proud to have led Global Entertainment as it has met the increased demand for the very best in entertainment. We’ve taken shows like The Voice, Love Island, The Chase and new formats like My Mum Your Dad and travelled them around the world as well as future proofing the business to fully embrace new opportunities like the Metaverse, gaming and podcasts. The business is in strong shape and I leave it in Ruth’s capable hands.”