Kerensa Samanidis has been named as General Manager for BBC iPlayer.
Samanidis joins from Channel 4 and will start the new role on 19 June. Reporting into Director of BBC iPlayer and channels Dan McGolpin, Samanidis will be responsible for the delivery of the BBC iPlayer growth strategy and management of the overall iPlayer operation.
She will work with teams across the BBC, including product, marketing and editorial. For the last year, Samanidis has been working for Channel 4 to develop and implement its international streaming business.
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In the early 2000s she worked at Sony where she developed PlayStation’s first video on demand strategy for the newly ‘network-connected’ PlayStation 2.
Since then, Samanidis has held leadership roles at the BFI, WarnerMedia and AMC Networks where she launched and managed a range of international streaming services. Samanidis also ran a consulting business with clients including BritBox International, BBC and Channel 4.
McGolpin said: “I’m delighted to welcome Kerensa to the BBC, her fantastic experience working across a wide range of video streaming businesses and her relentless focus on audience growth is going to help galvanise teams right across the organisation as we all work together to propel BBC iPlayer to the next level.”
Samanidis said: “The BBC and its iconic iPlayer streaming service have consistently led innovation in the industry, so it is a great honour to be brought in to continue this work and drive further progress with the service. I am looking forward to working with Dan and the talented teams at the BBC at such an important time in its digital future.”
The BBC iPlayer had a record seven billion programme streams last year.
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