NBCUniversal International today announced two Directors to its Television Production Formats team. Linfield Ng and Jonathan Tuovinen will focus on growing NBCUniversal’s format business in Asia Pacific and Latin America, respectively. Ng, based in Singapore, and Tuovinen, based in London, both report into Yvonne Pilkington, SVP of Format Sales and Production.
NBCUniversal International witnessed several format wins in 2011, including the resurgence of classic formats Queer Eye and Average Joe; the first international productions of Real Housewives in Greece and Israel with Canada also in production; the continued success of Top Chef which is set to launch in ten countries; and the addition of a tremendous library of formats stemming from the company’s acquisition of Monkey Kingdom in 2010 and Comcast’s majority stake in NBCUniversal in 2011.
Pilkington commented: “NBCUniversal boasts one of the most extensive libraries of formats, and we have proven we can take a compelling idea like Minute to Win It and develop a truly global format. Latin America and Asia Pacific are key strategic markets that will continue to propel our growth. Our plethora of formats from Top Chef, to Real Housewives, to Still Standing is perfect for Latin American and Asian audiences and we are also very excited about the new shows coming up through our production divisions.”
Ng and Tuovinen both come to NBCUniversal with extensive television experience. Ng is a sales and format professional with more than 11 years of Asia regional experience. Prior to NBCUniversal, Ng served as Director of Licensing for Endemol Asia - responsible for format sales across Asia. He also served in senior sales roles at BBC Worldwide (Asia) and Warner Bros. Picture International Distribution. Tuovinen was a Banijay International executive from 2008, most recently serving as Head of Sales. In this role, he was responsible for television programme format and finished programme sales to Latin America, Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa.