NBC staffing up at its international formats division

NBC Universal has poached executives from Banijay and Endemol as it seeks to ramp up its formats production and distribution business.

The company has recruited Linfield Ng and Jonathan Tuovinen to grow its format business in Asia and Latin America respectively.

Ng joins from Endemol where he was director of licensing for Endemol Asia, responsible for format sales across the region. He has also worked for BBC Worldwide and Warner Bros.

Tuovinen was head of sales at Banijay, overseeing programme and format sales across Latin America, Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Both report to NBCU’s senior VP of format sales and production, Yvonne Pilkington.

She said: “Our plethora of formats from Top Chef, to Real Housewives, to Still Standing are perfect for Latin American and Asian audiences and we are also very excited about the new shows coming up through our production divisions.”