Ancier To Head BBC's U.S. Operations
By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/13/2007 4:02:00 PM
Former NBC, Fox and WB entertainment executive Garth Ancier is joining BBC Worldwide Americas in a new slot - president of U.S. operations.
Ancier will move from L.A. to New York to oversee all of the BBC's U.S. ventures. That includes cable channel BBC America and others, as well as BBC Worldwide Productions, which makes Dancing With the Stars, among other shows.
Most recently, Ancier was at Warner Bros. Television, both developing new programming and overseeing AOL's broadband video service In2TV. Now at BBC, he will also oversee TV and video sales, as well as new digital ventures, reporting to BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith, overseeing TV and video sales.
The move comes as the BBC is focused on driving commercial expansion in the U.S. BBC America, in 53 million U.S. homes, is now more than halfway distributed, and the company's L.A.-based production office just picked up three scripted pilots for U.S. TV.
It also comes after BBC America chief Bill Hilary left the channel for an entertainment job at media agency Magna Global. The channel never named a new president/CEO in the slot, instead choosing to look for someone to oversee all U.S. operations.
Ancier was one of The WB's founders and headed its programming before becoming president of NBC Entertainment in 1999 and later moving on to work in programming at CNN. The Princeton grad became Chairman of The WB in 2004 and served in the role until the network merged with UPN in September 2006.
