Apple hires former BBC and Channel 4 exec, Jay Hunt

Apple has brought on board BBC and Channel 4 executive Jay Hunt, the company’s first high-profile broadcasting executive hire outside of the U.S., the Financial Times reports. She will start at Apple in January 2018 and be part of the team with a $1 billion budget for original content creation, the article adds. 

Hunt’s title at Apple will be creative director of worldwide video, Europe. She green lit TV shows including Sherlock and Luther at the BBC before helping Channel 4 lure away the Great British Bake Off.

Apple has set a budget of roughly $1 billion to procure and produce original content over the next year, according to the Wall Street Journal, and could acquire and produce as many as 10 television shows. The company has also hired Matt Cherniss, former president and general manager of WGN America, an American basic cable and satellite television channel owned by Tribune Broadcasting.

The $1 billion budget will be in the hands of Hollywood veterans Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, two former TV execs who joined the company in June newly created positions overseeing all aspects of video programming. They joined Apple from Sony Pictures Television.