MAM
BBC Worldwide makes US Library Sales appointment
LONDON: Focussing on increasing its share of the global stock footage market, BBC Library Sales has appointed Jan Ross to manage its activity in the US. Her designation is BBC Worldwide America’s senior vice president, Library Sales.
Reporting to BBC Library Sales managing director Simon Gibbs and based in Los Angeles, Ross will manage the overall strategy in the US for the company’s motion imagery licensing business.
Gibbs was quoted in an official release saying, “Ross’ track record in the industry will be invaluable in driving forward our ambitious business plans. She has become a member of the team at a time when our business is going from strength to strength on both sides of the Atlantic and I am looking forward to her further increasing our profile in the US market.”
With more than 20 years’ senior management experience in stock footage marketing, film production and the commercial film licensing business, Ross was a founder of the Energy Film Library. She led the company’s global expansion, conversion of its digital assets to digital media, and the development of its Internet strategies, prior to selling Energy assets to Getty Images in 1997.
Following this acquisition, she served as the chief executive officer of Getty’s film division and as a member of the senior management team of gettyone, the creative channel of the company.
After leaving Getty in 2000, Ross has served as an executive of Blacklight Films, which recently produced the broadcast series, America! BBC Library Sales operates from offices in London and regional offices in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Sydney and Tokyo.
MAM
Sameer Nair shares heartfelt note as he exits Applause Entertainment
After nine years building the streamer’s content engine, one of India’s best-known TV men is moving on
MUMBAI: Sameer Nair is out. The chief executive of Applause Entertainment, the content studio backed by Kumar Mangalam Birla’s media empire, has announced his departure after nearly nine years at the helm, closing the chapter on one of Indian entertainment’s more quietly consequential careers.
Nair, who built Applause from the ground up in its current avatar, oversaw a slate that spanned Indian originals and international adaptations, threading together a hub-and-spoke business model that partnered with streaming platforms, broadcasters and production houses alike. The results were uneven, as they always are in content, but the ambition was not.
In a post on LinkedIn, Nair was generous to his outgoing patron. He thanked Birla for being an “inspirational boss and a great patron of the arts,” and signed off with a cheerful “Au Revoir” and a promise to remain Applause’s biggest cheerleader. Whether that sentiment survives the next chapter remains to be seen.
No successor has been named. Applause Entertainment did not immediately comment.
Nair built the machine. Now someone else has to run it — and in a streaming market that is simultaneously consolidating and convulsing, that is no small ask.
