Patricia Hidalgo Reina is a broadcasting executive and the current Director of BBC Children's and Education.

BBC Children's

Patricia Hildago Reina was announced as the 19th

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

BBC Children's and Education BBC Children's and Education is the BBC division responsible for media content for children in the UK. Since the launch of specially dedicated television channels in 2002, the services have been marketed under two brands. CBBC (short for Chil ...

on 5 May 2020. Taking over her responsibilities during the COVID-19 epidemic led her to increase the amount of education programming available to children unable to attend school during lockdown. In addition to education provision on the BBC Children's services (

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

and

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 years and under. Its sister channel CBBC is aimed at older childr ...

) a commitment was made to make at least two hours of secondary school content each day on BBC 2. In February 2021 she launched her programme strategy, to invest in British Animation that might match the cultural impact of

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

. "We should be thinking about these things. Children grow up with these cultures. Why not infuse more of our culture?" she has stated.

Earlier career

She began her broadcasting career at

Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

in Spain. Moving to

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

in 2008 she managed their channels in Spain and Italy before taking strategic control for all the Disney Channels across

EMEA EMEA is a shorthand designation meaning Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The acronym is used by institutions and governments, as well as in marketing and business when referring to this region: it is a shorthand way of referencing the two ...

. In 2013 she was appointed Chief Content and Creative Officer for the Turner network channels across EMEA where along with overseeing their children channels which include

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

and

Cartoonito Cartoonito is a brand name used by Warner Bros. Discovery for a collection of television networks and programming blocks that target preschool-age children. The name combines the "cartoon" with the Spanish suffix "ito", meaning "small". As of 2 ...

she was responsible for the production of the animated series,

The Amazing World Of Gumball ''The Amazing World of Gumball'' is an animated sitcom created by Ben Bocquelet for Cartoon Network. The series concerns the lives of 12-year-old Gumball Watterson, an anthropomorphic blue cat, and adoptive goldfish brother Darwin, who attend ...

Awards

In 2017 she was awarded the World Screen's Global Kids Trendsetter award at MIPCOM in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the Children's' Media industry.

References

BBC 100 Women BBC executives BBC television producers British television producers Television executives Women television executives Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-tv-bio-stub