Ex-MGM TV chief joins IMG in ents push

Former MGM Worldwide Television president Gary Marenzi has IMG Media has head of entertainment sales and partnerships.

Marenzi will work out of LA and London at the UK-based sports media IMG, which is making a push into entertainment programming following it taking international distribution rights to BBC-AMC coproduction The Night Manager.

This came after US entertainment agency WME acquired UK-based IMG last year for US$2.4 billion.

Marenzi was most recently operating his own consultancy, Marenzi & Associates, and also served as president of Paramount International Television.

He left MGM’s international unit in 2011 upon the appointment of former NBC Universal International boss Roma Khanna as president, television group and digital. Khanna recently left after MGM bought the production assets of Mark Burnett and installed the veteran producer as president of United Artists Media Group.

“IMG is uniquely positioned to handle our clients’ global sales needs across all forms of content,” said Ioris Francini, president of IMG Media. “We are proud of our recent successes, and see a tremendous growth opportunity for high-quality scripted and non-scripted entertainment programming. We are fortunate to have Gary join us to lead this initiative.”

IMG’s first scripted series, The Night Manager, stars Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston, and is based on a John le Carré novel. IMG recently told TBI it had sold the series to “the entire world through multiple deals”.