Elizabeth Guider Reports from NAB: Exclusive Interview with Gerhard Zeiler

PREMIUM: Speaking exclusively to World Screen Newsflash before his public comments at NAB, Gerhard Zeiler, the outgoing CEO of the RTL Group, tells Elizabeth Guider that he thought "long and hard" and "over many months" before deciding to relinquish his role at Europe’s top broadcaster to join Turner Broadcasting System International.

One has to give credit to an executive about to leave a top job he’s held for a decade and take on another, for a company a Continent away and a corporate style perhaps even further afield—and show up in Vegas to be questioned publicly about both roles, two days before the transition.

But Gerhard Zeiler flew in from Luxembourg to do just that Monday afternoon before reboarding a plane in order to make RTL Group’s annual general meeting Wednesday back in the heart of the European continent. (He officially steps down as RTL Group CEO and begins as CEO of Turner Broadcasting System International on May 1. His Turner Broadcasting office will be in London.)

RTL’s results—especially the performance of its German, French and Dutch stations and its production unit FremantleMedia, all under Zeiler—are one of the bright spots on the Teutonic media conglomerate’s ledger. (Bertelsmann also owns Random House, Gruner + Jahr and BMG, among other media assets.)

Speaking exclusively to World Screen before his NAB address, Zeiler said he thought "long and hard" and "over many months" before deciding to relinquish his role at RTL Group. He has been in the top post for the last nine years, and other than a few missteps—a disappointing stake in Britain’s Channel 5, which was sold off 18 months ago, and an ill-timed media investment in Greece—the company has mostly gone from strength to strength under his leadership.

On his decision to move to Turner, Zeiler said, "I have an adventure, a risk, gene somewhere in me," he told the Newsflash shortly before his public Q&A. "At first, I simply intended to politely tell Phil Kent [his new boss at Turner] no, but then I listened and eventually it made sense to me," Zeiler went on to explain in his fluent English. He appeared relaxed and exhilarated about the change despite the jet lag.

And what message does his hiring by a Hollywood major conglomerate like Time Warner send? In Zeiler’s view, the move suggests that the key U.S. companies are all beginning to think more globally, and to act in a much more granular and more sophisticated way.

Although reluctant to describe what specific talents he brings to the table, Zeiler suggested that world-class American media players would likely eventually make similar moves, becoming more international in their make-up at some of their higher executive echelons.

As for what the Austrian-born exec thinks the next phase of American expansion abroad should entail, Zeiler said he believes that U.S. channels abroad need to concentrate on getting the balance right between American-originated material and locally-produced content.

During the follow-up Q&A session Zeiler said he thought production in Germany had improved tremendously, thanks to much greater financial investment and the huge pool of directorial and star power in Europe. What is still missing is a significant pool of writing talent, something he said the British as well as the Americans excel at developing.