WarnerMedia’s European restructuring continues with changes in France, Benelux & Germany

Iris Knobloch

WarnerMedia’s restructuring in Europe has continued with a merged executive team for its operations in France, the Benelux and Germany under the recently appointed Iris Knobloch.

The changes are designed to combine the US studio’s myriad operations in the region into a central unit, bringing together WarnerMedia’s legacy Turner and HBO businesses, as well as Warner Bros. activities such as TV, digital and theatrical distribution.

They also come just days after WarnerMedia confirmed it was expecting to roll new streamer HBO Max out in Europe next year and a month since the recent rejig to its operations in the UK and Ireland.

Merged thinking

Caroline Lang will continue to lead TV distribution for France & French-speaking territories while Sylvia Rothblum heads up Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GAS), as well as Israel.

Gregory Schuber and Tim van Dyk respectively will continue to lead marketing teams in France & Benelux and in GAS, while Olivier Snanoudj leads theatrical distribution for France & Benelux, and Steffen Schier heads up GAS.

The rejig will also see the home entertainment and consumer products divisions in each region merging. Eric Broet oversees France & Benelux, with the support of Yves Elalouf, head of home entertainment for France & Benelux, and Jérôme Ollagnier, head of consumer products France.

Peter Schauerte leads on home entertainment and consumer products for GAS, with Veronika Tiedemann, appointed head of home entertainment for GAS and Stefan Hausberg named head of consumer products for GAS.

Willi Geike is stepping down as country manager for GAS and Poland to take on a new role focused on local theatrical production in the region.

Johannes Larcher

Focus on HBO Max

The team will report into Knobloch, who was named country manager for WarnerMedia France & Benelux and Germany/Austria/Switzerland in October. She in turn will work closely with head of HBO Max International Johannes Larcher, and head of HBO Max for EMEA, Christina Sulebakk and their teams.

Knobloch said the revamp would “bring a first-time ‘one WarnerMedia’ approach to our businesses in these important markets, finding new ways to amplify the consumer offering across every touchpoint, and to fully optimise the array of brands, businesses and platforms now at our collective disposal.”

She added: “Their combined strengths across all facets of content creation and delivery give us an exceptional foundation from which to further serve existing audiences and prepare for new ones as we anticipate the future arrival of HBO Max in our markets. Their commercial expertise, innovative thinking and passion for our content will be powerful drivers as we take this new business model forward.”

Knobloch reports into Priya Dogra, who was appointed president of WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks EMEA & Asia (excluding China) this summer before also taking on the remit for Warner Bros. in her territories in October.

The reorganisation follows the announcement in August that WarnerMedia was bringing the international operations of Warner Bros., HBO and Turner under one leadership for the first time, with Gerhard Zeiler, to whom Dogra reports, named as head of WarnerMedia International.