Cecile Frot-Coutaz

This interview originally appeared in the MIPCOM 2012 issue of TV Europe.

 

Cecile Frot-Coutaz, FremantleMedia’s recently appointed CEO, is best known for heading up the company’s North American operations, where she shepherded the huge hits American Idol, America’s Got Talent and The X Factor. She has been with the company since 1995, starting in Europe, where she helped develop the business strategy of what today is one of the world’s leading producers and distributors of programming.

TV EUROPE: Tell us about your 17 years with the company.

FROT-COUTAZ: When I started it was a very different kind of company. We were Pearson Television, which had literally just been assembled under Greg Dyke’s leadership. The core of the company was Thames Television. We had just bought Grundy; that was our first big acquisition and it set us down a path of building an international-production business. My first big deal in my role, which was to support Greg Dyke in acquisitions and strategy, was the acquisition of All American Television, which at the time was owned by the Scotti brothers. The company produced Baywatch, it had a big syndication operation and it had all the Goodson-Todman Productions’ game-show formats. That was a substantial acquisition and a very big deal for us, in size, in scale and in monetary terms. Getting that acquisition done, and also then integrating the acquisition into the rest of the company, was a fantastic experience. I talk about that deal because having that experience and history means I understand the fabric of the company, and how the business model was put together, and why it works and how it works. Some of the questions we have today, interestingly, were the same ones we had 10, 12 or 15 years ago. We went from a collection of companies around the world to being a truly global company. There is a big difference; having an international footprint is one thing, but having a company that functions as a global company, as we do now, is very different and a huge strength. Looking back, I’m really proud to have been part of that very big construction exercise.

 

TV EUROPE: And you eventually moved to the U.S.

FROT-COUTAZ: I went from that job to a more operational job in Europe and then eventually went over to the U.S., where I ran our North American operation. That was about building the company into one of the leaders in North America in reality television. When I arrived there, it really wasn’t an empire at all. It was quite transformational, and this is a business that has managed to retain its key brands. We have the very successful daytime shows that are still going strong, which maybe people don’t talk about as much as the big prime-time television shows. But for us those are very big brands and some of them have had a real resurgence lately, like Family Feud with Steve Harvey. The social-gaming activities we’ve been able to launch around Family Feud have shown us the power of these brands and how evergreen and important to the business they are. And of course there are the three big talent shows, American Idol, Got Talent and The X Factor. I also served as executive producer on these three shows and I’m very passionate about them! I spent a lot of my days and years worrying about how to make the next season better than the previous season. It has been a great roller coaster and there is something really special about being part of shows that are big events like that and that really have an impact on the culture.

 

TV EUROPE: As you step into your new role as CEO, what are you excited about?

FROT-COUTAZ: The thing that is incredibly exciting about FremantleMedia and that I am very proud of is that we are a truly global player. And there are very few companies like ours. We have worked very hard during the last ten years to make that work. When I say we are global, we are global in terms of our approach to production and we’re also starting to use our global presence to further our development efforts. That is quite hard to do because the world has become a much more global marketplace than it was ten years ago. We’re a great partner, we work very well in partnerships and we are really good executors. This company makes really good shows. We have a very large amount of number one shows around the world. If I look at the future, the challenge for me is around answering the question Where is the business going? Where are the viewers going? People’s tastes are changing. The kinds of shows that are working today are not the same kinds of shows that were working ten years ago. Drama is making a comeback. We’re looking at those trends and I want to broaden the scope of the company into some new genres. I also want to really focus on what digital means for us. There is a transition that is happening right now. [For] a content player that is very exciting because we have options and opportunities. The next decade will be quite transformational for our company and for our competitors as well. And that is the exciting part, figuring out what our path is going to be and how we can be a trailblazer.