Turner International’s Gerhard Zeiler

Gerhard Zeiler, the president of Turner International, tells World Screen how he continues to believe in the power of brands and the connection that viewers forge with programs and their characters, hosts and anchors.

Turner International is home to some of the most recognized media brands in the world, such as CNN, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TNT and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). These, along with their digital extensions and several other country- and region-specific channels, are available across Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Turner International is part of Turner, a Time Warner company. In 2016 Turner contributed 38 percent of Time Warner’s $29.3 billion revenues, much of that delivered by its international businesses, a testament to the fact that the pay-TV business in countries outside the U.S. remains healthy. Turner International offers platforms CNN, the number one news channel in the world; Cartoon Network, one of the most-watched children’s channels, along with a suite of other services for kids, from Boomerang to Boing and from Cartoonito to POGO and Toonami; series and movies on TNT; and classic movies on TCM—all of which are tailored to cultural tastes.

Gerhard Zeiler has been president of Turner International since 2012. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated a passion for programming, first as secretary general of the Austrian public broadcaster ORF; later as CEO of RTL Television, the market-leading channel in Germany; and then as CEO of the RTL Group, one of Europe’s leading media companies. Zeiler helped spearhead the RTL Group’s family-of-channels strategy. At a time when viewership was fragmenting, he and his teams recognized the need to launch portfolios of channels, with each channel targeting a different audience segment. By putting the audience first, Zeiler drove RTL’s success. As consumption habits continue to shift in today’s media landscape, he remains focused on viewers and meeting their needs with the Turner portfolio of services.

WS: I have read that John Martin, the chairman and CEO of Turner, has asked everyone at Turner to rethink television. Would you give some examples of how Turner International has been rethinking television?
ZEILER: As you know, we are a truly global company with very strong and powerful brands. We operate more than 175 channels in more than 200 countries that showcase 40 brands in 33 languages. For example, CNN International is seen in 319 million households, and Cartoon Network in 350 million. Curating those brands and providing quality content is our core, our DNA. Additionally, we try to move the TV experience beyond the living room at a time when consumers are shifting more and more from passive viewership to high-engagement behaviors. To say it in one sentence: We are focusing on our fans. They are streaming more, watching on-demand more and bingeing more. That is why we offer our brands and our content across more touchpoints than ever before. We want to serve our fans and enhance the user experience.

We are also offering 360-degree brand experiences. To give you a few examples: We are touring with many of our shows, especially the programs from Cartoon Network. We are developing several location-based entertainment projects, like the Cartoon Network Amazone waterpark in Thailand, a Cartoon Network cruise line and even a Cartoon Network hotel. We invest in developing games in connection with our most popular kids’ programs like Adventure Time, Ben 10 and The Powerpuff Girls. And these are only a few examples of how we broaden our offerings to the consumer, and especially to our fans.

WS: In this environment of constantly changing viewer behavior, what do pay-TV platforms want?
ZEILER: Let’s be clear: the choice of content and brands for the consumer is bigger and brighter than ever before. In this environment of what I call “consumer power,” pay-TV platforms need must-have brands, for which consumers are ready to pay. The time when it was important for platforms to offer as many networks as possible regardless of whether the consumers actually watched them is over. Or at least will be over soon. Quality is more important than quantity.

In Latin America, for example, we have four networks in the top 10 and six in the top 20 channels—more than any of our peers.

The second thing that all platforms do more and more—at least the successful ones—is that they develop their own OTT experiences in order to be competitive with standalone SVOD services like Netflix. Which, for us, means that we also have to be more and more in control of the SVOD rights ourselves.

WS: What opportunities do you see in Asia for the Turner brands—linear and digital?
ZEILER: In the Asia-Pacific region, we build our business on the back of the two global hit brands CNN and Cartoon Network, as well as on local and regional brands. On the kids’ side of our business, we launched Boomerang in the last few years across all Southeast Asian markets, and POGO, our top-ranked kids’ brand in India, is one of our strongest local brands. The launch of Oh!K in Southeast Asia, which broadcasts the most successful Korean shows, was a success from the first day. Mondo TV and TABI, our two local networks in Japan, are top-ranking channels in their genres. And Warner TV in Southeast Asia, which airs Warner Bros. and TNT series, is one of the top general-entertainment channels in the region.

Asia Pacific is also a region where OTT services are exploding. Wherever you look, new OTT services, like iflix, Viu, HOOQ and Tribe—to name only a few—are ramping up their subscriber bases. And working with them in many different ways, and developing many different and sometimes new business models, is a priority for us.

The one market where we are at the beginning is China. And here we focus on the development of Chinese IP. Our first owned Chinese IP is an emoticon, a rabbit called “Tuzki,” which is known by the 600 million [members of the] WeChat community and is used by tens of millions of people every day. You can imagine how many opportunities we see in developing this IP further. There are Tuzki cafes and restaurants, and Tencent will bring Tuzki to the big screen together with Warner Bros. and us.

WS: What opportunities do you see in Europe?
ZEILER: Our linear-channel portfolio continues to be successful, whether you look at Cartoon Network—the number one boys’ pay-TV channel in most markets—or Boomerang, which is our second complementary kids’ channel, or TNT, which is a top general-entertainment network in Germany and Spain, to name only a few examples.

We were also able to launch quite a few new channels in the last two years: Toonami, an action hero kids’ channel, earlier this year in Africa; TNT in nine markets in the Nordics and Central and Eastern Europe; and we will launch our first general-entertainment channel in France, branded as Warner TV, in November.

One of our main strategies in Europe is to invest more in local content. On the kids’ side, for many years we have produced The Amazing World of Gumball, which is a success in all markets, including the U.S. This year, we started producing Apple & Onion, another kids’ program, which hopefully will be a success all over the world. And in Germany, we now produce the third hit drama in a row with the series 4 Blocks.

There are also huge opportunities when it comes to our consumer-products business, through IP such as Ben 10 and The Powerpuff Girls.

Last but not least, don’t forget our digital approach. Whether it is with our EMEA Cartoon Network websites, which are growing on a three-digit basis year on year, or with our YouTube channels, for which we had a record of 175 million views on our kids’ channels in June with 359 million minutes of watched content.

WS: What opportunities do you see in Latin America?
ZEILER: Despite the fact that we are still experiencing macroeconomic headwinds in Latin America, we never­theless see enormous opportunities in the region. Pay-TV penetration has increased very much since the beginning of the decade and now exceeds 50 percent in all markets, with the exception of Brazil.

Turner has traditionally had a very strong business—with four networks in the top 10 and six in the top 20—which is unparalleled by any of our peers. But this is not enough for us. We know that we need to invest heavily in these brands with more and more original content and sport. To secure that, we will shift the overwhelming part of our investments to these brands.

At the end of August of this year, we also started our first premium channel, TNT Sports in Argentina, on the back of our acquisition of local Argentine soccer rights, which we did together with FOX [Sports]. That is an exciting opportunity for us, and [early results] have already indicated that we will have a lot of joy with this investment.

WS: What demand are you seeing for sports in the digital world?
ZEILER: Although live sports will always play a very important role for linear networks, digital sports offers will develop fast and successfully. There will be many direct-to-consumer offers for sports fans, and we, as a company, will not abstain from this part of the business.

Internationally we have EI Plus, our SVOD offer in Brazil, and we also invested in a company called Copa90, which is a fan-based digital sports outlet focusing on soccer.

Add to that the success of ELEAGUE in the U.S., which we are in the process of expanding internationally, and you get a small glimpse of the opportunities we have in the digital sports arena.

WS: Is Turner thinking as much about providing content to the end consumer, the viewer, as it is about providing content to pay-TV platforms?
ZEILER: The answer is a simple yes. This is a major part of our strategy, as in my opinion, no media company will be successful in the future without a direct-to-consumer business. We have a few projects in development on both the kids’ and the general-entertainment sides of the business, and I am sorry that I can’t announce more at this stage. But you will hear from us quite soon, as we are planning to launch some of our direct-to-consumer projects before the end of the year.

A central part of executing this strategy is the establishment of a special unit within Turner International, the digital ventures and innovation division, which was set up to drive innovation and to develop new direct-to-consumer offers.

WS: Viewing habits may change, but viewers still want great content. What are some of the programming highlights at Turner International?
ZEILER: As I said before, investing in original programming is a must-do part of our strategy and serves three strategic goals: First, we need great content in order to be competitive in the fight for the consumer’s time. Second, the attractiveness of locally produced programs is increasing in all regions. And third, we need to control more of the value chain than we have in the past.

Some recent examples of our strategy in action include the German TNT original drama 4 Blocks, which launched at the Berlinale film festival. It has already been such a huge success in Germany, and is now making international waves. This follows on the success of the multiple award-winning series The Valley (Weinberg) in 2015, which was recently sold in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Ireland. These two examples show how non-English-language European shows are increasing in success overseas.

In Asia Pacific, too, we have a raft of original programs that are specific to the region. This includes Kyoto Life on TABI in Japan, Saimdang on our Korean channel Oh!K and Lamput on Cartoon Network.

And in Latin America, we were quite successful with local programs such as Hasta Que Te Conocí and Historia de un Clan.

WS: Can you comment on Time Warner’s merger with AT&T? What will it mean for Turner International?
ZEILER: As you can understand, I can’t discuss the proposed merger. What I can answer is the underlying question. It is fair to say that we are a truly global company with very strong brands and power­ful content. That is our core. That is our DNA. At the same time, we are developing more of a direct-to-consumer attitude and exploring the efficient use of data. Any additional knowledge in these fields could possibly drive our business significantly further. The combination of content, brands and data with a direct-to-consumer attitude will be an unbeatable formula.