BBC Worldwide America To Bring Ad Sales In-House

Weather Channel Veteran Gall To Lead Effort, Establish Major Market Hubs

-- Multichannel News, 11/27/2007 9:04:00 AM

BBC Worldwide America, tapping a veteran of The Weather Channel to lead the effort, will bring its ad sales fully in-house next April.

Mark Gall, senior vice president at Weather since 2003, where he headed the company's cable and integrated platform ad sales, has been named senior vice president BBC America and BBC Digital Media. He's charged with establishing hubs in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and developing cross-platform ad packages for U.S. and global sponsors.

Currently handled by Discovery, ad sales for BBC America and its VOD channels, will come in-house from April 1, part of BBC Worldwide America's long-term strategy to drive revenues as it increases its portfolio of channels in the region. Those moves have thus far yielded the recent launch of BBC World News America, the BBC’s first U.S.-facing evening news broadcast, while BBC America HD is slated to launch next year. 

Gall’s appointment follows the recent integration of advertising on BBC.com, which counted some 10 million unique users in October, according to comScore.

“Now that we present a wider propostition for advertisers, it's time to fully leverage a stand alone sales team dedicated to the BBC brand,” said Garth Ancier, president, BBC Worldwide America, in a statement. “With 33% of BBC.com's international traffic coming from North America and BBC America in almost 60 million homes, we offer extremely attractive platforms for advertisers to reach our significant upscale audience.  Discovery has done a terrific job for BBC America sales and, of course, we continue to be very strong partners in distribution and factual programming.”

Noted Gall: “It's going to be an exciting journey as we take these premium platforms and build value through partnerships with a whole roster of clients. The BBC is one of the world's most valued and trusted brands and we will ensure integrity and quality is upheld every step of the way.”