Sunita Rajan is BBC Worldwide executive VP ad sales Asia

Sunita Rajan is BBC Worldwide executive VP ad sales Asia

MUMBAI: Sunita Rajan, who is currently BBC Worldwide senior VP, ad Sales, Asia, becomes an executive VP.

She adds responsibility for BBC.com and Lonely Planet ad sales activities in Australia, reporting into Carolyn Gibson who is in the new position of executive VP International ad sales.

This is all part of BBC Worldwide‘s changes to its ad sales business as the company continues its re-organisation along geographic lines. It is also worth noting that BBC Worldwide last year pulled two of its channels from India citing a difficult economic environment for pay TV. Only BBC World News continues to air here.

Under the restructure, BBC Worldwide‘s ad funded media assets will be partially decentralised as its wholly owned local channel businesses are migrated into the company‘s regions, and it moves these businesses into regional P&Ls.

As a result of the changes, which alters the scope of the current UK-based leadership role, BBC Advertising executive VP, GM Chris Dobson has decided to leave the business in the summer this year.

Remaining centralised and based out of London will be global advertising sales for BBC World News, BBC.com and BBC World Service, and for external clients such as Lonely Planet and Viki.com in international markets.

Mark Gall who is executive VP ad sales, US and Canada will add responsibility for Latin America to his remit for the same assets. He will work with the regional executive VP and will have accountability into Gibson for news elements. This group, along with other key executives in finance and business strategy, will operate the Global Ad Sales Council with Herb Scannell as head.

Gibson has extensive experience within the BBC most recently as BBC Advertising senior VP, international sales - Europe, Middle East and Africa and Americas. Prior to that, she was one of the founding members of the BBC World News airtime sales team when it was formed in July 1998, following a number of years in international sales positions at IP Network in Europe and Star TV in Asia.

In her new capacity, Gibson will set strategy and oversee BBC Worldwide‘s key clients that conduct business on an international and global basis. Most prominently will be the international commercial TV channel BBC World News, which is seen in over 200 countries, and its related international site BBC.com, both of which form part of BBC Global News, a separate entity from BBC Worldwide, and strategically imperative for the BBC‘s global ambitions.