Apple hires Oppenheimer for international content team

Apple has hired BBC Films veteran Joe Oppenheimer as a creative executive for its international team – led by former Channel 4 creative boss Jay Hunt.

Oppenheimer becomes the second UK executive to join Apple’s TV ventures, after it hired Hunt as its European director of worldwide video.

The new exec will be a London-based creative on Hunt’s team and work to source programming internationally, as he reports to the Channel 4 alum.

Oppenheimer stepped down as acting head of BBC Films in December, after 19 years with the business.

He has executive produced a range of hit films from I, Daniel Blake to Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa and landed an Emmy nomination in 2014 for One Life, the Daniel Craig-narrated BBC Films documentary.

The news arrives shortly after Apple ordered its first international series from Canal +. The title will be an English-language adaptation of French series Calls.

Apple has been amping up its programming slate this spring/summer. Recently it brought Oprah Winfrey in for a multiyear deal and ordered a J.J. Abrams music dramedy.