euro news_news 12/07/2013 17:22 Page 3
Digital initiative from MTG
SES’s Fritz joins Eutelsat
arkus Fritz, formerly vice president and general manager marketing at SES, has joined rival satellite operator Eutelsat as director of commercial development and marketing, reporting to JeanFrancois Leprince-Ringuet, the Group’s chief commercial officer. In his new role, Fritz is responsible for further developing Eutelsat’s commercial strategy internationally, including market development and research, business intelligence, product management and pricing as well as marketing communications. He is also responsible for developing strategic marketing partnerships with customers to strengthen Eutelsat’s competitive advantage globally. Fritz comes to Eutelsat with over 20 years of international experience in the satellite, ICT and consumer electronics industries, including over ten years at SES Astra. He has also provided strategic and commercial services across EMEA and South-East Asia and held leading roles at ZVEI, the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association and Digital Europe, a Brussels-based association representing the digital technology industry. “Markus brings to Eutelsat a wealth of knowledge and experience in the satellite and ICT industry that will further strengthen our international competitiveness and drive future business growth in longstanding and emerging markets for data, video and value-added services,” said LeprinceRinguet. “His extensive track record in strategic and operational areas combined with business development and marketing expertise, will enable Eutelsat to continue to mine our major markets to the fullest extent possible, while building profitable growth in the emerging world.”
I
nternational entertainment broadcasting group Modern Times Group (MTG) has unveiled a new Group-wide initiative to accelerate the pace of its digital innovation and expansion. MTGx is now the enabling hub for the Group’s digital planning and execution, and will be focused on increasing the speed of development of the Group’s existing and future digital entertainment products and services. MTGx is headed up by MTG EVP and chief digital officer Rikard Steiber. MTGx will be the ‘x-factor’ accelerating the Group´s innovation and success in digital entertainment by providing world class video on demand experiences, building a portfolio of new entertainment services and providing centralised digital skills and platforms for the Group across all markets and companies. MTGx will be organised along a four pillar structure: l ‘xPlay’ is focused on the Group´s advertising funded online catch-up services for its TV channels and vertical offering like sports and music content as well as the online pay-TV service Viaplay, with a focus on making the best content available for viewers, regardless of platform. l ‘xVentures’ will be responsible for building, partnering and investing in a portfolio of new entertainment services like the second screen service Like.tv and the online gaming portal Viagame. As part of this effort xVentures will establish presences in start-up communities in several countries, with an initial focus on Sweden, the UK, and the US, to find partnership and investment opportunities. l ‘xCreations’ will be a digital production hub for the creation of ‘digital first’ content for web and mobile platforms as well as extending the life cycle of traditional linear TV content by utilising the opportunities presented by the digital environment and social media. l ‘xLabs’ will be the R&D focus area of MTGx. MTG is constantly expanding the Group’s digital service offering, and both the free-TV
AVOD services and the online pay-TV service Viaplay has shown significant growth, with increased availability and content. In addition, the second screen service Like.tv was launched in Sweden in 2012, and was expanded to Norway and Demark in 2013. The online gaming portal Viagame was launched in 2012 on a pan-Nordic basis. The Viasat sports online clip web site, and the Klipster coupon application were launched in the first quarter of 2013 in Sweden. MTGx is also in the process of recruiting top talent, and has made several key hires in recent months from, among others, Google, Spotify and Universal Music, adding to MTGx´s existing pool of top talent. Rikard Steiber, MTG EVP and chief digital officer, said the company wanted to create personal and social user experiences that connect people to the entertainment they love the most from their favourite movies, sports, series, music, and games. Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, president and CEO of MTG, said that MTGx was about accelerating MTG’s own pace of development, to ensure that it continued to build its momentum in this key area, and to bring people closer to the things they love through digital. “We have an established and powerful online presence for our channels in a large number of markets and have successfully extended a number of our linear programming formats into the digital environment. We were also the first to launch a fully-fledged online SVOD service in Scandinavia, and have added a wide variety of digital products and services. In order to succeed, we have to m ??F???W"7W7F??W"f?7W2v?F?&V?Wf?BF?v?F?&?GV7G2?&?F?F?&?Vv?F?R&?GV7F????FV?fW'??B???WF?6F????b6??FV?B??BW??6?????F??WrW?6?F??rf?V?G2v?F???F?RV?FW'F???V?B??GW7G'???W"v??f?"F?Rw&?W?2??B?2?v?2&VV??F?&Rw&?wF?6??????BvRv???6??F??VRF?????fFR??B????W"6W'f?6R?ffW&??r?'WBWfW'?7V7B?b?W"?v?'W6??W72???&FW"F??ffW"?W"7W7F??W'2F?RV?FW'F???V?BF?W?v?B??F?Rv?F?W?v?B?B?( ?????UU$??TD???