Ganesh Rajaram

World Screen Weekly, January 3, 2008

VP of Sales for Asia

FremantleMedia Enterprises

In his role at FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME), Ganesh Rajaram has spent the last three years securing slots for shows like American Idol and Jamie’s Kitchen on a host of Asian broadcasters. For much of his career, however, Rajaram was on the other side of the negotiating table.

Trained as a print journalist, the Singaporean native joined the television business more than a decade ago with a job at MediaCorp—then known as the Television Corporation of Singapore. Initially working as a producer, Rajaram eventually had oversight for all English-language content at the station. When the Singaporean government decided to liberalize the market, Rajaram joined the new broadcasting group SPH Mediaworks and ran its English-language station, overseeing original productions and acquisitions. By 2004, however, the Singaporean media authorities had decided that two broadcasting groups were, perhaps, too much for the country, and SPH Mediaworks’ assets were merged with that of MediaCorp. For Rajaram, the time was right to switch over to the program-distribution side.

“When I was running a TV station I had good relationships with a lot of the distributors,” he says. “I knew from a content perspective what worked in the market.” At the same time, “distributors were looking at themselves and saying, if we want to expand our business in Asia, we should have someone in Asia, rather than doing it from the U.S. or U.K.”

Rajaram joined FME in 2005 and has overseen tremendous growth in the company’s Asian business. He cites his broadcasting experience as having served him well. “When the buyers come in to see me, I know exactly what issues they’re facing. I know what their schedules are, I know where the gaps are and I know what works in the various markets. That’s been my biggest strength.”

For Rajaram, FME’s success in Asia stems from the breadth of the catalogue, which spans factual, light entertainment, drama, comedy and more. A new addition to the FME slate is Kylie Kwong: My China. FME has taken on the worldwide TV, DVD and ancillary rights to the series, which is produced by the Singaporean company Sitting in Pictures. FME launched the culinary/travel show at MIPCOM. “That was the biggest highlight of my three years here,” Rajaram says. “Being Singaporean, to see a local production entity have a part in producing content that is going to be on the world stage, that was a great achievement.”

—By Mansha Daswani