Viasat promotes acquisitions chief ahead of MIP

Viasat Broadcasting has promoted Jakob Mejlhede to senior vice-president of acquisitions and programming ahead of MIPTV.

Mejlhede has worked at Viasat Broadcasting for five years and takes on his new role with immediate effect. Based in London, he will be responsible for all of Viasat’s programming acquisition and content development for its free and pay TV channels across 35 countries.

He will manage a 50-strong acquisition team and will work across Viasat’s footprint, which includes free-to-air channels in 10 countries and satellite platforms in nine countries. He will also work with the company’s recently established Content Development team.

Prior to joining Viasat owner MTG, Jakob was vice-president of programming for MTV Nordic.

Jørgen Madsen, executive vice president of Nordic broadcasting at MTG, said: “Jakob has been a senior member of the team and a top performer for several years now, so we are delighted that he is stepping into this newly created role to oversee the development of this key aspect of Viasat’s operations. Content is what drives our success as a TV broadcaster across multiple countries and distribution platforms, so it is essential that we have high quality and experienced executives engaged in the day to day management of our portfolio of programming assets and sourcing new formats and channels.”