France Télévisions boss introduces his new team

After taking up duty on Monday, Rémy Pflimlin, the new president of French public broadcaster France Télévisions has announced his new team.

Four delegate general directors have been announced. Coming from Radio France, Patrice Papet will handle organization and human resources while Martin Adjari,  former deputy director at the Opéra de Paris will manage administration and finance. Together, replace Damien Cuier.

Former executive at French daily newspaper Le Monde and the general director of the France Culture radio station, Bruno Patino, will manage FTV’s digital division along with the France 5 channel.

Coming from Lagardère Group where she was running TV activities in France and internationally, Emmanuelle Guilbart oversee programming and run young adult-skewing channel France 4.

Pflimlin also announced the departure of FTV’s general director Patrice Duhamel.

The new France Télévisions chief is eager to give the group’s five channels more autonomy. Contrary to previous president Patrick de Carolis’ centralised strategy, France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5, France O, will all get their own general directors.

Claude-Yves Robin, formerly in charge of marketing and communication at FTV will manage France 2 while François Guilbeau, who formerly supervised technology and digital development, takes on France 3. Claude Esclatine, previously Chairman and CEO of cinema promotion group AlloCiné, will run France O.

In terms of programming, the new president wants to rejuvenate the channels’ audiences, targeting an average viewer age of 45 years-old instead of the current 55. He also would not discount introducing reality TV to FTV channels. Historically, it has been excluded from FTV schedules.