Blue Ocean Media Partners Joins Forces with nGülam to Grow Its Content Representation and Sales Business

DUBAI and MADRID, Jan. 16, 2024 — Blue Ocean Media Partners, a specialized advisory consultancy for the media, content and entertainment industry, and nGülam, a media and technology consulting firm with deep roots in content distribution, today announced a strategic partnership. nGülam will work alongside Blue Ocean Media Partners’ senior team to develop and run the firm’s Content Representation & Sales business line — representing rights holders’ libraries to buyers, sourcing content for platforms and networks, and managing the rights behind every deal.

Blue Ocean Media Partners was founded by Raffaele Annecchino after more than 25 years at Paramount and Viacom, where he led the company’s international operations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia. From offices in Dubai and Madrid, the firm advises media and entertainment companies across three practices — Business Development & Partnerships, Content Representation & Sales, and Strategy — with a senior team drawn from major media groups including Paramount, Fox and Viacom.

Content Representation & Sales is where the two firms’ experience overlaps most. Streaming platforms, FAST channels, free-to-air broadcasters and pay-TV networks are all competing for premium content while managing tighter programming budgets, and rights holders — from Hollywood studios to independent producers — need partners who know the buyers in every market and can negotiate window by window, territory by territory. Most of that work still depends on relationships, market knowledge and disciplined deal-making rather than technology.

That is where nGülam comes in. nGülam’s team has extensive experience selling premium content of all genres across multiple platforms, including streaming, free-to-air and pay-TV networks. With a strong network of key contacts across the industry, from Hollywood studios to independent distributors, the team represents a large library of content that comprises movies, television shows, original series, kids content, documentaries and more.

From Library to Screen

Under the partnership, nGülam will lead three connected workstreams with Blue Ocean Media Partners’ team:

“Content is the heart of this industry, and the value of a library depends on who represents it and how well they know the buyers. nGülam’s team has sold premium content across streaming, free-to-air and pay TV in many of the markets where we operate, and it shares our conviction that partnership is the way to grow. Together we can offer rights holders and platforms a senior team that takes content from library to screen — with the reach, the relationships and the discipline that the best deals require.”

Raffaele Annecchino, Managing Partner and CEO of Blue Ocean Media Partners

Senior Operators Who Have Sold Content on Every Platform

The engagement is led by Adrian Janon, Partner at nGülam, who brings more than 20 years of international leadership experience across media, technology and entertainment, including senior executive roles at global media companies such as Paramount Global, Bertelsmann Media and Fox Corporation. Over his career he has forged international partnerships and driven scalable revenue growth across streaming, OTT platforms, telecommunications and content distribution.

Consistent with nGülam’s operating model, the work is delivered by senior operators embedded directly with Blue Ocean Media Partners’ team, from strategy through execution.

“Blue Ocean Media Partners has assembled a senior team that knows the international content business from the inside, and it has chosen to build a representation and sales practice around that knowledge. We have spent our careers selling premium content — movies, series, kids programming, documentaries — to streaming platforms, free-to-air and pay-TV networks in markets around the world. Our job now is to put that experience and that network to work for Blue Ocean’s clients, deal by deal.”

Adrian Janon, Partner at nGülam

nGülam’s team will work from London and Madrid alongside Blue Ocean Media Partners’ teams in Dubai and Madrid, with an initial focus on rights holders and buyers across the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. The partnership positions Blue Ocean Media Partners to scale its Content Representation & Sales business and gives rights holders and platforms a single, senior team to take content from library to screen.