BBC Children’s has brought in Anna Taganov to serve as head of children’s content and programming strategy.
Based in Salford, Taganov started in this newly created role today, and she reports to BBC Children’s and Education director Patricia Hidalgo. She will work closely with the pubcaster’s two commissioning and acquisitions heads—Sarah Muller (seven to 12) and Kate Morton (zero to six).
Taganov’s remit is to manage content and programming strategies for linear kids channels CBeebies and CBBC, as well as VOD service iPlayer. She will also head up a new content and performance strategy department, overseeing teams responsible for the planning and scheduling of all BBC Children’s and Education content on CBeebies, CBBC and iPlayer. And she has oversight of BBC Children’s YouTube channels, CBeebies House and CBBC HQ.
Taganov has most recently been consulting in the children’s media space, but she spent 13 years leading content and programming strategy for Disney channels across Europe, the Middle East and Africa before that. Over the course of her tenure, she rolled out Disney Junior pan-regionally and transitioned Disney’s linear content to SVOD platform Disney+ ahead of its launch.
The addition of Taganov to the BBC Children’s team is part of a larger ongoing restructuring that saw the kidcaster merge its commissioning and acquisitions teams for the first time earlier this year in a bid to become more audience-focused and internationally competitive.