Pearson's three TV units give Dyke a run for his money ... for now.

The first thing Greg Dyke did when he set out to build a major international European TV production and distribution company was to import U.S. marketing and production talent. He figured that he already had a perfect distribution team, headed by Brian Harris. Dyke, former CEO of LWT and current chairman of the U.K.'s Pearson Television, was not afraid to shell out some $264 million to buy Australia's Grundy Worldwide, since he felt that "British television is very parochial."

After Dyke purchased the Los Angeles-based ACI, he made ACI's CEO James S. Bennett the CEO of Pearson Television Worldwide Productions and relocated him to London. Dyke appointed ACI's Brian Harris the head of Pearson Television International (TVI), Harris took ACI's Robert H. Oswaks with him to London (Oswaks will also maintain an office in Los Angeles) as executive vp of Worldwide Marketing for Pearson TVI. Oswaks now has the added task of promoting and positioning Pearson's three key assets - ACI, Grundy and Thames - while maintaining their separate identities.

Since 1994, Pearson has been associated with a hodgepodge of interests ranging from The Financial Times to book publishing to merchant banking. At this year's MIPCOM, however, Pearson will come of age in the TV market with its revamped and expanded sales and production operations. Program buyers will encounter one of the most impressive exhibition stands in the Palais des Festivals. Harris, now Pearson TVI's managing director, will front a team handling several thousand hours of programming. "We had a new stand at MIP-TV, which will be expanded at MIPCOM," explained Harris. "We're nearly trebling our space, making us one of the biggest stands there."

Today, Pearson TVI handles program catalogs from U.K. sales and distribution giant Thames International, which has also acquired the library of SelecTV International, another U.K. distributor; ACI, the American company that specializes in TV movies and mini-series; and Grundy International Division, a part of Australian independent production group Grundy Worldwide. (Grundy's drama serial Neighbours, which has been in production for more than 10 years, is broadcast in 43 different countries.) In addition to the above, Pearson TV will continue to set up co-production ventures with outside producers.

"We're in the process of amalgamating the international sales as well as forging a new production operation," Harris said, referring to Pearson TVI's sister company, Pearson TV Worldwide Productions. The new company features Thames Television (including SelecTV production units Alomo Production, Witzend Productions and Clement La Frenais Productions) and the production arms of Grundy Worldwide and ACI. The new structure will be truly global: ACI's U.S. and U.K. operations will join with Thames in the U.K. and Grundy in North and South America, Australia, the Far East and Europe.

"Changes are quite substantial," Harris said. "The whole business [including West London-based Thames and ACI International] will be relocated to [central London]. We shall also be announcing two major appointments at senior level for MIPCOM." According to Harris, Pearson will shut down some U.S. offices, focusing the business in New York and Los Angeles: "Instead of separate locations, we shall now have two big U.S. centers. And from time to time, we would seek to rationalize [i.e., downsize] Grundy's various European-based companies into one." But Harris was quick to emphasize that restructuring does not mean substantial job cuts. "There are very few people that we have not been able to retain," he said.

Pearson TVI's parent company, Pearson Television, is the holding company for the Pearson group's TV interests. And, since the affable Dyke became chairman and chief executive in 1995, Pearson Television has grown into one of the world's leading TV companies.

Before Dyke joined Pearson, the company's main TV interests were BBC World and BBC Prime, two satellite-delivered pan-European ventures set up with the U.K. public broadcaster; Financial Times Television, a small production company for business programs; former broadcast company Thames Television, now the U.K.'s biggest independent program production house; and U.K. satellite network BSkyB and terrestrial TV station Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television, both of which Pearson holds shares in.

In a short period of time, Dyke acquired Australia's Grundy Worldwide for $264 million; bought a 10 percent share in Hong Kong broadcast company TVB for $159 million; clinched the franchise for the U.K.'s fifth terrestrial network, Channel 5, via a consortium in which Pearson holds 25 percent: and bought ACI for $40 million.

"We opted for a growth strategy clearly aimed at niche markets around the world," read the Pearson group's 1995 corporate report. "This will not preclude further investments in the U.K., but it does signal our determination to look well beyond the U.K. and especially at less mature TV markets where demand is growing rapidly for inexpensive locally produced programs."

To help pay for this acquisition spree, Pearson sold its 9.75 percent stake in BSkyB, its 14 percent share in Yorkshire Tyrone Tees and a 6 percent stake in satellite service The Children's Channel. Meanwhile, U.K. Gold and U.K. Living, two entertainment satellite networks co-owned by Pearson, continue to reach a wider audience in the U.K. And, as a sign that Pearson Television is truly forward-looking, the company holds 6 percent of Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES), the Luxembourg-based broadcast satellite operator that is currently dominating Europe's first digital TV satellites.