BBC Studios alum Jim Brown joins FilmRise to fuel FAST & AVOD sales

Jim Brown

New York-based producer & streaming firm FilmRise has hired former BBC Studios exec Jim Brown as its director of digital distribution & programming.

Brown’s remit includes expanding the company’s digital distribution footprint by licensing content to partners for their AVOD and/or FAST platforms, working with FilmRise’s content sales team.

He will report directly to Daniel Gagliardi, VP of digital distribution & business development at FilmRise.

Brown was most recently director of content sales & distribution at BBCS, where he had been for eight years, licensing content to AVOD, SVOD and linear platforms.

Prior to that, he was director of operations for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he helped launch and manage the WWE Classics SVOD business unit. He has also had stints at Insight Communications and Viacom Networks (formerly MTV Networks).

Melissa Wohl, SVP & head of content sales at FilmRise, said: “Jim has an unparalleled amount of experience in licensing and deal negotiations with global streaming platforms, which will add tremendously to FilmRise’s overall growth. His background with niche content and specialty streamers is going to be incredibly valuable with our extensive library of genre programming.”