BBC Studios hooks Salmon

Peter Salmon

Veteran British executive Peter Salmon has been named director of the BBC’s forthcoming commercial production division, BBC Studios.

Salmon, currently based in Salford as director of BBC England, has beaten off competition to land the controversial post, and will take up the job later this year.

He will work closely with the BBC’s director of television, Danny Cohen, and BBC directors to “decide the right structure, leadership team and remit”.

Salmon has vast production experience on shows such as Crimewatch UK and is a former controller of BBC One. He was founding director of BBC North, and also ran a previous BBC production division, BBC Vision Productions.

He also ran TheTelevision Corporation as CEO during the period it was sold to Mentorn Media parent Tinopolis Group in 2006.

“This is a great opportunity to build a new model for BBC Production and work with some of the best people in the business,” said Salmon. “Our in-house teams across the UK are responsible for some of the most popular and high-quality television in the world.”

BBC Studios is part of a radical BBC plan to break out production from commissioning at the UK’s public broadcaster.

It has been created to potentially allow the BBC to produce for other channels for the first time, while simultaneously opening up more opportunities for indies and rivals to produce for the BBC channels – effectively ending the current mechanism, the Window of Creative Competition.

BBC Studios will initially be a public-owned BBC arm, but may eventually be spun out as a wholly-owned but independent producer.

However, the BBC’s plans have been met with opposition from various sectors of the British television market.

With Salmon taking on the job, Helen Boaden will add BBC England to her duties.