Dan McDermott has been tapped to head BBC Studios and Lionsgate’s TV partnership. The U.K. and U.S. partners announced late last year they were joining forces to work up scripted formats and IP for the U.S. market.
McDermott has been executive vice president of programming at Fox and president of television for DreamWorks. He also partnered with Lorenzo di Bonaventura to launch Di Bonaventura Pictures, and has executive produced series including “Zero Hour” and the upcoming “Jupiter’s Legacy” for Netflix.
BBC Studios is the commercial and production arm of U.K. pubcaster the BBC. In an earlier incarnation as BBC Worldwide, it joined forces with Starz on a drama slate that included “Torchwood” and “Da Vinci’s Demons.” Part of the BBC-Lionsgate pact involves scouring the huge BBC archive for IP that could be reworked for the U.S. market.
“BBC Studios is a treasure trove of great properties and talent, and Lionsgate is a global content platform with one of the most exciting independent television businesses in the world,” McDermott said. “The extraordinary teams of Mark Linsey and Matt Forde at BBC Studios and Kevin Beggs and Sandra Stern at Lionsgate are the perfect partners to make this happen.”
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Lionsgate Television chairman Kevin Beggs said McDermott “is not only an experienced media executive but an incredibly talented content creator responsible for some of television’s most iconic properties.”
“As we continue to ramp up our scripted operations with Lionsgate, we’re looking forward to having an astute leader like Dan to guide the team that will fill our content pipeline with great television series for the U.S. market,” added Matt Forde, managing director of international production and formats for BBC Studios.