Martyn Freeman is BBC Worldwide's first general counsel

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide has announced the appointment of Martyn Freeman as its general counsel, a new role with responsibility across all legal and business affairs, policy and regulatory matters, including the negotiation of transactions and joint ventures, rights and deals management, crisis management, compliance, risk management and talent accounting.

Freeman will report to BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith and will be a member of BBC Worldwide?s Executive Board. He will take up his position on 21 November.

He has been in charge of BBC Worldwide?s Legal and Business Affairs since 2002, as group head and then director. In these roles, he worked on the creation of partnerships such as BBC Books and 2 entertain, the divestments of BBC Magazines and BBC Audiobooks, the re-structuring of joint ventures with Discovery, and has had overall responsibility for rights acquisition and management.

More recently he has also led on raising financing and negotiating deals for BBC Worldwide?s slate of natural history feature films.

Previous to this position, he has worked in a variety of roles across the BBC, including as Head of Business Affairs, Radio and Music, Factual and Learning and News.

Freeman said, ?I am delighted to become the first general counsel for BBC Worldwide. It gives me the chance to build on nearly a decade?s work at BBC Worldwide as well as taking on some fascinating new challenges as BBC Worldwide continues to develop as a truly global media company.?