BBC names Studios management

UK pubcaster the BBC has set out its senior management plans at its soon-to-launch production arm BBC Studios.

Peter Salmon will run the division, which has proved controversial and been opposed by commercial rival ITV and producers group Pact.

Mark Freeland will oversee drama and comedy. Factual will sit under Natalie Humphreys with natural history headed by Wendy Darke. Katie Taylor will run the entertainment.

A head of development and head of digital will be named soon, Salmon said in an email to staff detailing the BBC Studios plans that was seen by the Guardian newspaper, which was the first to report the news.

BBC Studios was announced in March. It will handle all BBC productions – excluding sport, current affairs and children’s TV – as part of a plan to allow the BBC to produce for other channels and to broaden the BBC’s own commissioning process to expand indie opportunities.