Endemol Shine Group: the story so far

The enormous distribution group created by the merger of Endemol, Shine Group and Core Media is taking shape, with a raft of new appointments, executives leaving the business and former staffers turning up elsewhere. Here are the key appointments at the new super group.

Endemol Shine Group has been shaping up under CEO Sophie Turner Laing (pictured left) following the completion of the merger of three of international TV’s largest players – Endemol, Shine and Core Media Group. Her first major appointment was Tim Hincks (below right) as president of ESG.

Global content sales will be run by Endemol Worldwide Distribution boss Cathy Payne. Shine International CEO Nadine Nohr exited as a result of her appointment.

Ana Langenberg will head up global format sales, while Shine Network boss Lisa Perrin has been named managing director of Endemol Shine Creative Networks, which combines Shine Network and Endemol’s creative operations division. Iris Boelhouwer is exiting the latter as a result of the merger.

Meanwhile, high-ranking Shine Group exec Gary Carter will oversee operations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Nordics, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, the MENA region, Turkey and South Africa; whilst Endemol’s Martha Brass will cover France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Australia, India, China, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Israel.

In Germany, Endemol Germany managing director Marcus Wolter will lead the combined businesses of Endemol and Shine as CEO of Endemol Shine Germany. Shine Germany’s deputy CEO Holger Rettler, will become director of Show, a new label within Endemol Shine Germany, but Axel Kuehn, Shine Germany’s final chief executive, exits.

In France, Endemol’s and Shine’s operations will remain independently operated and be run by Nicolas Coppermann and Thierry Lachkar respectively – currently the only territory where this structure is being employed.

Elsewhere, Endemol’s CFO, Edwin van Es, will take up the same role within the new group, with Shine finance director Tom Fussell will step down in 2015 as a result. Boudewijn Beusmans becomes Endemol Shine’s group commercial officer having been chief legal and business affairs officer at Endemol.

Core Media Group president Marc Graboff, meanwhile has joined pay TV giant Discovery Communications, having left Core last September as the merged moved ahead. He will be president, global business and legal affairs, production management and studios – a role that includes the duties of former Discovery Studios chief Eileen O’Neill, whose exit was revealed last month. Graboff will join Discovery in April and oversee acquisitions, development and programming production for all Discovery channels and digital networks worldwide, and oversight of UK-based production businesses Betty, Raw and All3Media.

Endemol Shine International

We discovered this week that the merged global finished sales unit of Endemol Shine Group will be called Endemol Shine International and will encompass the Endemol Worldwide Distribution and Shine International. ESI will have bases in eight cities including London, LA, Paris, Sydney, Miami and Moscow and new offices in Singapore and Mumbai.

Cathy Payne (pictured) will lead ESI as chief executive, overseeing a combined portfolio of 38,000 hours of owned and third-party programming across scripted and non-scripted.

Executive VP, sales and acquisitions Matt Creasey will lead distribution in the Americas, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, while London-based Mark Lawrence will lead European efforts as executive director, Europe.

James Braham has been named senior sales director, UK and Ireland, while Lisette Schlipp is senior sales director, Germany, major central and eastern Europe.

In France, where Endemol and Shine remain independently operated, Shine International’s Priscilla Siney and EWD’s Solange Ribeiro-Murphy remain in their roles as senior sales directors for French territories.

Elsewhere, Kirsten Cargill and Lisa Higginson will remain as senior sales director and sales director for Australia and New Zealand, respectively. Both work out of Sydney.

Meanwhile, a sales director will be appointed for Asia. They will work out of Singapore and report to senior sales director Rashmi Bajpai, who is based in the new Mumbai office.

The futures of Shine’s EMEA sales director, Dorit Schilling and SVP, Americas Ted Bookstaver; and Endemol’s UK and Ireland sales director Gisela Asimus-Minnberg are unclear. Insider sources say Bookstaver remains under contract, though clear details on the three executives are scarce at this stage.

ESI is also searching for a head of acquisitions. This comes after Shine International’s senior VP, acquisitions, Georgia Brown, left to join FremantleMedia’s international drama division.

She has been hired as senior VP, scripted, and will report to FremantleMedia International CEO Jens Richter and FremantleMedia’s director of global drama, Sarah Doole, whom she previously worked with at BBC Worldwide.

The new acquisitions chief will be joined in London by John Richards, who has been named chief financial officer, and Jan Rowland, who becomes head of operations.

ESG’s key titles include Broadchurch, Big Brother, Deal or No Deal, Peaky Blinders, Hot in Cleveland, MasterChef, 24 Hours in A&E and One Born Every Minute.

The UK

Shine Group’s COO Tim Robinson has left the UK division of ESG. Former Endemol UK COO Richard Johnson has been named CEO of a new unit, Endemol Shine UK, of which Endemol UK CEO Lucas Church becomes chairman of Endemol Shine UK. Church also joins ESG’s worldwide group commercial board.

Johnson will now oversee a group of UK prodcos including Artists Studio, Brown Eyed Boy, DSP, Dragonfly, Fifty Fathoms, House of Tomorrow, Initial, Kudos, Lovely Day, Princess Productions, Remarkable Television, Shine North, Shine Soho, Shine TV, Tiger Aspect, Tigress and Zeppotron.

Besides chairing Endemol Shine UK, Church will oversee areas such as digital video, gaming, apps and brand relations.

Lucinda Hicks (pictured) has been appointed chief operating officer. She has been upped from managing director of Dragonfly, the UK prodco that was part of Shine and is now one of the production banners in the enlarged Endemol Shine operation.

Hicks will work with Johnston and Church to support the group’s UK-based production companies. She has been jointly running Dragonfly with Mark Raphael for the past two years and before that was in charge of business development at Shine and Shine Nordics.

Raphael has assumed sole leadership at Dragonfly, which counts One Born Every Minute and Extreme A&E among its credits.

Meanwhile, Sony-backed UK prodco Electric Ray has poached Endemol entertainment executive Shaun Parry. He will take up the new post of creative director, overseeing Electric Ray’s entertainment programming slate as well as its development unit, which creates formats for the international market.

He takes up the post this month and will report to Electric Ray co-founders Karl Warner and Meredith Chambers. Parry was head of entertainment at Endemol UK, overseeing shows including BBC’s Pointless and ITV’s The Whole 19 Yards.

Another programming exit to exit the group is Shine TV’s Claire Morrison, who has joined ITV Studios-owned UK prodco Potato in the new role of head of development. She held a senior development executive role at Shine TV.

The Nordics

The shape of the Endemol Shine Group’ Nordics business is notable for being the one part of the global group in which former Shine execs largely assume the key posts, reflecting the strength of Shine in the region.

Gary Carter (pictured) will oversee the unit and Michael Porseryd the highest profile casualty of a wide-reaching restructure. The division – Scandinavia’s largest production group – will be known as Endemol Shine Nordics, comprising 11 production companies and four broadcast facilities across Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

Endemol and Shine have long been connected in Scandinavia. Endemol had once owned 35% of producer Metronome Film & Television, but sold its stake to Schibsted in 2007. Two years later Shine acquired Metronome, and last year the production group became Shine Nordics.

Endemol Nordics CEO Porseryd is leaving after a transition period and his post will be discontinued. Furthermore, the Endemol Nordics brand, which has been in use since 2010, is being withdrawn, along with a trio of subsidiary labels – Endemol Denmark, Endemol Finland and Endemol Norway. Their businesses and programmes are being subsumed into Shine Nordics prodcos and Endemol Sweden, which produces Kanal 5 drama Gåsmamman.

This means Endemol Denmark managing director Rikke Missen and Endemol Norway MD Eric Linschooten will leave after a transition period. Porseryd oversaw Endemol Finland, which was a small production operation that staffed up when necessary.

Staff at Endemol in the affected territories are in discussions with ESG management about their roles. Some will move into new posts, with around 20 Endemol staff likely to be left at the end of the process, it is understood.

Endemol Shine Nordics will comprise Meter Television, STO-CPH Produktion, Filmlance International, Friday TV, branded content unit Mag5 Content, Rubicon TV, Metronome Spartacus, Metronome Post, Metronome Rental, Studios AS in Norway and Denmark, Metronome Productions, Endemol Sweden and Shine Finland.

Each company chief, including Endemol Sweden interim CEO Rosenlund, will report to Carter. Roselund will also be CFO for Endemol Shine Nordics and Victoria Kjellberg keeps her post as business and legal affairs head at the parent group.

Meanwhile, an existing Shine relationship with former Metronome Denmark chief Merete Mortensen’s new prodco, Heartland, continues unchanged.

Asia

Viacom’s William Tan has been hired to run the group’s new China operation with the CEO of its wider Asian operations, Arjen van Mierlo, exiting. Tan joins from Viacom International Media Networks and will start in the new role in April, the same month that will see van Mierlo exit the business.

Under the new Asian configuration, Fotini Paraskakis, managing director of Asian operations, will remain with the company with a particular focus on Southeast Asia. She joined Endemol from FremantleMedia in 2013.

The restructure of the Asian business is set to continue with Endemol Shine saying further announcements are in the works.

Endemol Shine China has Beijing and Shanghai bases. The group recently announced it was moving its Hong Kong operations to mainland China and Singapore, and it also setting up a production hub in Singapore.

At US-listed Viacom, Tan was general manager and vice president of VIMN Greater China. He becomes managing director of Endemol Shine China.

Endemol Shine Creative Networks

At group level, the company has merged its creative networks units and split out formats distribution. Endemol’s Iris Boelhouwer will exit as a result, having previously been managing director, creative operations. She has decided to leave after she oversees the integration of her old division with Shine Network, Shine’s formats development unit.

Boelhouwer first joined Endemol in 1994 and has held various posts, including executive producer and creative director of Endemol Netherlands. She also spent five years at Dutch broadcaster SBS, and has been MD of creative operations since 2010.

A newly-combined Amsterdam-based creative team, Endemol Shine Creative Networks, will be led by Lisa Perrin, who was previously MD of Shine Networks. Perrin will report to ESG president Tim Hincks.

Format sales and acquisitions are being split out, with Ana Langenberg taking on a bigger role as global head of format distribution. She will report to ESG group commercial officer Boudewijn Beusmans.

Langenberg’s team will operate separately to Payne’s ESI, which handles finished programming, and will focus on international sales and acquisitions of scripted and non-scripted formats, as well as supporting the roll-out of formats in territories where ESG has local prodcos.

Perrin, meanwhile, succeeded Claudia Danser as MD of Shine Networks last year after the latter decided to move into executive coaching.

Perrin joined Shine in 2009 as creative director of UK subsidiary Shine TV. She had previously worked at Endemol, its subsidiary Tiger Aspect Productions, and UK broadcasters UKTV and the BBC.

Langenberg first joined Endemol in 1998, working her way up the formats business to become distribution chief in 2010.