Sky Studios rejigs factual with new remit for Barnaby Shingleton

Barnaby Shingleton

Sky Studios has appointed Barnaby Shingleton to become director of factual, with a new remit that includes oversight of the company’s UK and US factual prodcos.

The rejig sees the former Zodiak Rights exec taking on overall responsibility for Sky Studios’ commercial investments, deficit funding and international distribution of original documentaries.

He will also oversee sales of third party-funded projects for other broadcasters produced by Sky Studios’ production companies, as well as taking on direct responsibility for the division’s eight factual production companies in the UK & US.

These include: Bake Off firm Love Productions, Jupiter Entertainment, Blast! Films, Transistor Films, Talos Films, True to Nature, Catalina Content and True North.

Shingleton, who was most recently director of documentaries, now reports to Sky Studios CEO Gary Davey, who is retiring later this year when he will be replaced by former YouTube exec Cécile Frot-Coutaz.

He will also strikes commercial and development relationships with factual producers and talent for projects that may be commissioned by Sky’s territories across Europe.

Factual vs scripted commissioning

Unlike scripted content, which is jointly commissioned by Sky Studios and the originating Sky territory, commissioning for factual content continues to sit within Sky’s channel teams in each of Sky’s markets in the UK, Italy and Germany.

In the UK, this is led by Poppy Dixon, director of documentaries & factual, who commissions original content for Sky’s factual channels including Sky Nature, Sky Crime and Sky Documentaries.

Last week, Sky Documentaries announced a slate of new projects in the UK, four of which are produced in association with Shingleton’s team at Sky Studios and distributed by NBCUniversal Global Distribution.

Prior to Sky Studios, Shingleton was director of entertainment & factual at now defunct sales division Sky Vision, which was folded into NBCUniversal Global Distribution in 2019.