BBC Studios Kids & Family recruits from ZDF Studios & Paramount

L-R: Katharina Pietzsch & Kelly Wood

BBC Studios Kids & Family has appointed ZDF Studios’ Katharina Pietzsch as VP of content sales, while Paramount exec Kelly Wood has been made head of content strategy.

The company said that these two new appointments complete the division’s senior management restructure, with major changes including the exit of kids & family head Helen Bullough last year.

Pietzsch’s role will see her lead the sales and co-production strategy for the BBC Studios Kids & Family portfolio. Working closely with the content and production teams, she will manage priority accounts with responsibility for enhancing sales revenue and profit targets across co-productions, commissions and tape sale activity globally.

She joins the division from ZDF Studios, where she was a director in its Junior department, responsible for negotiating pre-sales, co-productions and commissions for all key-account, pan-national, Scandinavian and global clients and deals and also developed custom made projects with selected producers worldwide.

Wood’s newly created role will meanwhile see work closely with other BBC Studios Kids & Family leads to define global and local content strategies and roll-out plans for its brands on BBC Studios global channels, third-party services and digital platforms.

Prior to BBC Studios, Wood was an editorial lead at Paramount Kids and Family UK and Ireland, where she oversaw content and programming strategy for the Nickelodeon brand across linear and non-linear platforms in the region.

Cecilia Persson, managing director, BBC Studios Kids & Family, commented: “I am delighted that Katharina and Kelly are bringing their considerable experience and insight to help up us deliver our ambition to create high quality content and build globally appealing brands that leave a lasting impression and have the power to make a difference to the lives of kids and their families everywhere.”