André Renaud & Nick Smith to Chair FRAPA

Warner Bros. International Television Production’s André Renaud and All3Media International’s Nick Smith have been elected as co-chairs of FRAPA, the Format Recognition and Protection Association.

Renaud is group VP of finished and format sales at Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP), a post he has held since last year, following positions at BBC Studios and ITV Studios. Smith is All3Media International’s executive VP of formats and licensing, as well as a visiting professor of TV formats at the University of Sunderland and a founding member of RX Global’s diversity advisory.

Richard Ager, Fremantle’s executive VP for legal and business affairs, global entertainment, has been tapped as FRAPA’s treasurer.

“André and I are committed to taking FRAPA to the next level by making it even more relevant and responsive to the needs of our members,” Smith said. “And those needs are evolving at warp speed thanks to the threat—or perhaps promise—of AI, the shift to streaming, digital and short-form, market oversaturation and rising production costs. We see our task as helping to provide clarity at an inflexion point for our industry, while offering our members the hands-on support they need to generate and leverage formattable ideas that will deliver for us all—creatively, commercially and culturally.”

Renaud noted: FRAPA’s mission remains as vital today as it was when it was founded 25 years ago: to support the creativity that powers our industry and ensure that it’s respected by all. We are grateful to FRAPA’s leadership and the Advisory Board for expanding FRAPA’s mission, ambition and purpose. As we look ahead, we want to focus on growing our global community of like-minded colleagues, and really bring this group closer together to share, advise, and celebrate our collective successes, whether it be from Sweden to South Korea, or Brazil to Botswana. I’m excited to start working with Nick and the Management and Advisory Boards to drive this collective vision forward, starting at our FRAPA summit at MIPCOM.”