Jana Bennett to leave BBC following restructure

Jana Bennett is to leave BBC Worldwide later this year following a corporate restructure of the commercial arm of the British public broadcaster.

Bennett, who is president, worldwide networks and the global BBC iPlayer, will leave the company in the “late autumn” in order to complete a number of commercial deals.

This comes as BBC Worldwide has announced a major reorganisation and has reconfigured the business from divisional to geographic lines. The move, which will take effect on October 1, will see the company’s existing structure, based around five global divisions, move to seven geographic regions: North America; UK; Australia/New Zealand; Western Europe; Asia; Latin America; CEEMEA (central and eastern Europe; Middle East and Africa).

Subsequently, BBC Worldwide will hire a chief sales officer, chief brands officer and chief digital officer as well as an executive that will be in charge of content. The seven regions will report into four presidents that will report to BBC Worldwide chief executive John Smith.

Smith said, “Jana has made a hugely positive contribution to BBC Worldwide in her time here.  She deserves our gratitude, and leaves us a great legacy to build on.  She has extended our channels internationally, driven schedule changes which have translated into ratings and advertising uplifts, and moved forward our digital offer across several platforms.  She has also secured some important market entries in Latin America, Asia and EMEA, which will form the cornerstone of our future business there.”

Bennett has not announced where she will move to following her departure.