New York, NY — BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, today announced the promotion of Parul Patel to Vice President, Factual Co-Productions and Sales, effective immediately.  Parul will continue to oversee co-production and sales activity with broadcast partners across key factual programming genres, including natural history, news and current affairs, lifestyle and general entertainment titles.  She reports directly to Greg Johnson, Senior Vice President, TV Sales, Factual.

Parul has worked with leading programming partners on landmark natural history titles, including the critically acclaimed Life and Frozen Planet with Discovery Channel, National Geographic’s 24/7 Wild, Space Dive and How Nature Works as well as PBS’s Nature series, Ocean Giants and Natural World programs.

Matt Forde, EVP Sales and Co-productions remarked, “Parul’s creativity, imagination and commercial acumen in identifying programming titles that meet the needs of our clients has helped drive our business on the co-production and sales front and enabled us to establish long-standing broadcast partnerships.”

Added Johnson, “Parul’s instinctive sense of the BBC brand combined with her extensive knowledge of the US factual business and key relationships with both UK BBC and independent producers and channels makes her a truly valuable asset as we continue to increase our programming footprint.”

Parul joined BBC Worldwide in 2001, starting as a sales executive for the company’s footage licensing business, BBC Motion Gallery.  In 2004, she was promoted to sales manager of BBC Home Video.  In 2006 she was upped to senior sales manager for the TV Sales and Distribution team and in 2008 was named director of Sales and Distribution.