Global media company Turner has taken a lease on 160 Old Street EC1 to take effect from January 2019.
The site will become its new London headquarters when the lease on its current Great Marlborough Street site expires. Staff will begin to move out of Turner UK’s current premises from autumn 2018.
Turner’s move to the new site provides a fresh working environment for staff supporting the portfolio of channels it programmes out of London and across the EMEA footprint, as well as a suite of digital properties and social channels, a growing consumer products business, its innovation arm Digital Ventures & Innovation, and a range of distribution, syndication, and advertising divisions. It also means a new purpose-built CNN London newsroom and studio to house its Europe, Middle East and Africa newsgathering, production, broadcast and digital HQ, as well as a new global hub for CNN International Commercial operations.
The move will also include London-based staff of HBO, HBO Europe and Time Warner currently based at Great Marlborough Street who will relocate to 160 Old Street with Turner.
“The expiry of the lease at GMS and the decision to move to Old Street coincides with a time of fast-paced evolution at Turner as it transforms from a historically channels-led operation, into a fan-first content creation and curation business delivering multiplatform products and services across the kids, news, sports and general entertainment genres,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
“It forms part of a wider initiative from Turner to invest in new locations for its offices, with Rome, Madrid, Stockholm, Dubai and Warsaw being recent examples in EMEA, all of which will combine to better position the company for growth.”
“We found a building that will allow us to execute our diverse and expanding range of businesses, reflects our culture and is attractive to existing and future employees, all of which was vital to our growth plans,” said Giorgio Stock, president Turner EMEA.
“This is an exciting move, which will put us at the heart of a vibrant and creative community that shares our values of enterprise and innovation. The thinking has been long in the making and this is an important moment for us as a company to mark our next incarnation in London.”
