Fremantle CEO Jennifer Mullin eyes ‘disruption & rocky road’ into 2024 as industry fluxes

Jennifer Mullin

Fremantle CEO Jennifer Mullin expects industry turmoil to extend into early 2024, admitting that a “rocky road” is ahead as the global landscape evolves.

The soft market follows an intense period of acquisition by RTL Group-owned Fremantle, which has seen it buy a raft of companies over recent years ranging from Normal People producer Element Pictures and Italy’s Lux Vide to Israel’s Silvio Productions and 72 Films.

The M&A push came in tandem with a target to hit revenue of €3bn by 2025 and while Fremantle has been nearing that number, its Q1 results showed revenue had fallen by 6%.

Neighbours

And during a keynote at Banff World Media Festival, Mullin admitted that the rest of the year and into early 2024 would prove a challenging time for producers.

“We’re in for a rocky few months in terms of the global macro challenges, the big platforms are still refining their strategies and that has a cascading effect on companies like us,” she said.

Mullin added that Fremantle’s strategy is focusing on “good communication” with commissioners and how to be a good partner. “They have so many issues they have to deal with… we want to make sure that they don’t have to worry about this [show], go worry about something else.”

The Fremantle veteran, who replaced Cecile Frot-Coutaz as CEO in 2018, said there would be “continued disruption” for the rest of the year and into early 2024, but said producers also had to try to “filter out the noise”.

Rights flexiblity from streamers has been one effect of the buget squeeze to emerge over the past year, Mullin said, pointing to Fremantle deals including Disney+ ordering an Italian version of Got Talent and Amazon’s Freevee saving Aussie soap Neighbours.

She continued: “Eighteen months ago, if you had sold a show to Amazon or Netflix or Disney+ they would need world rights. We’re not seeing that now.

“It speaks volumes in terms of what is happening and how those platforms that were so global are now thinking locally.”