ITV Studios combines sales under Ruth Berry, as Arjan Pomper exits

Love Island

ITV Studios is rejigging the leadership of its global commercial divisions, with Arjan Pomper stepping down as MD of Global Entertainment and Ruth Berry, MD of Global Distribution, expanding her remit to include his vacated role.

Ruth Berry

The move brings the global distribution and global entertainment divisions under a single leadership team, led by Berry, which ITV Studios said will allow it to “align more closely with buyers” and will reflect “the evolution of the global market with the growth of the streaming platforms, on-going market consolidation and the adoption by many buyers of a single buying approach across all genres.”

Berry has been with ITV Studios for a decade, spending the last six as MD, and is credited with expanding the sales unit’s European language scripted catalogue, along with its unscripted offering. Berry will now oversee a catalogue of 90,000 hours with 285 unique formats including Love Island, My Mum Your Dad, Maternal, The Voice and Line of Duty.

Prior to joining ITV Studios, Berry served as SVP and head of EMEA at Shine International and at The Walt Disney Company where her roles included head of branded services and digital media distribution, EMEA.

Arjan Pomper

Pomper departs

As a result of the reorganization, Pomper is stepping down from his role as MD of Global Entertainment, which he took up a year ago, following the departure of Maarten Meijs to Talpa, having originally joined the division as COO in August 2020.

Prior to ITV Studios, Pomper held roles at the media and communication company Dentsu as CEO of Netherlands, Middle East and Africa and CEO of Dentsu Belgium.

He was also co-founder of various media and content companies including AMPN, a content and production company in Sub Saharan Africa.

“Ruth has been instrumental in building our commercial business and partnering with our clients globally.  She has a deep knowledge of what our partners need and we look forward to on-going growth as she leads the two divisions,” said ITV Studios COO David McGraynor.

“I’d like to thank Arjan for the significant contribution he has played in shaping and delivering the strategy for Global Entertainment. Under his leadership he has created a great team that has delivered impressive financial and operational performance.”