Endemol Australia boss resigns ahead of merger
Endemol CEO Janeen Faithfull has announced her resignation, after 3 years leading the production company.
- Published by David Knox
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Endemol Australia CEO Janeen Faithfull has announced her resignation, after 3 years leading the production company.
She departs ahead of a merger between Endemol and Shine Australia, whose current CEOs Mark and Carl Fennessy also announced their resignation several weeks ago.
“After three enormously fulfilling years I’ve made the difficult decision to leave the company and pursue new opportunities. I’m incredibly proud of our talented and committed team and all we have achieved together as Endemol Australia. I have no doubt that joining forces with Shine Australia later in the year will lead to even greater things and I wish all those involved continued successes,” she said.
CEO, Endemol Shine Group, Sophie Turner Laing said: ”Janeen has done a tremendous job of building and leading an outstanding team at Endemol Australia. She has overseen the launch, return and continued success of numerous hit shows across diverse genres including drama, reality, entertainment, factual, and children’s programming. She has our profound thanks for all her brilliant work and we wish her all the very best with her next endeavour.”
Martha Brass, Co-CEO International Operations, Endemol Shine Group. is currently overseeing a consultation on the structure, leadership and start date of the new merger. Both Shine Australia and Endemol Australia will continue to operate independently until then.
Faithfull, a former Seven Network exec, will continue to lead the company in the short term.
10 Responses
@Ronnie – don’t get your argument. There are X many hours the networks currently produce content for which is only increasing with DTT channels and now SVOD services for all (by rule of thumb, imports don’t perform as well as local). Most networks produce the bare minimum in terms of drama that’s required under legislation which I would think could only expand and also be applied to SVOD players in due course.
Not like the car industry at all and the Shine/Endemol merger has nothing to do on downward pressures due to less commissions or declining revenues. More local content is being produced and watched than ever before albeit the audiences are fragmenting – and the multinationals are the companies benefited, not Australian owned, not Australian ideas (outside scripted).
How many of the large independant production companies in Oz are now foreign owned ? Fremantle, Shine, ITV.. Now Southern Star/Endemol… What hope do local producers have if there is a monopoly now owned by Murdoch? And is this why they are bringing in foreign workers?
Don’t forget Matchbox is owned by NBC Universal and Playmaker is owned by Sony. And all of these billion dollar media corporations apply to Screen Australia for subsidy to round-robin to their bottom lines. They are destroying the local base with every commission they secure. The next thing to happen is the networks will be bought by these conglomerates to further secure supply chain.
Screentime = Banijay
How are they destroying the local base when they are telling distinctly Australian stories by Australian writers with largely Australian cast and crew ie. Howzat!, Paper Giants, The INXS Story, Catching Milat… these stories are connecting with Australian audiences (with Howzat! and INXS hovering around the 2 mill mark from memory) and supporting our industry. Without Screen Aus support they wouldn’t be made as the international distribution value/interest is low.
Some good points, although Catching Milat is untested.
For one the profits are syphoned overseas and are even more enhanced via tax concessions due to the producer offset which was not designed to improve multinationals tax positions.
Do Shine, Endemol and Fremantle need the tax break to produce drama despite benefiting from running relatively profitable businesses producing reality? Im sure the Aus drama would still get made if they decided it wasn’t their core business due to profitability.
The argument has nothing to do with local stories and everything to do with tax payer assistance not being utilised in a way that would help produce a robust Australian owned production sector.
The value chain exists in owning IP and having recourse to the revenue the IP generates, not being an enslaved wage earner. It’s like the car industry – R&D creates the real value, the blue collar workers can work on the assembly line for a wage with extreme downward pressure coming from overseas wage earners. Same principle applies here. There is not enough room for all these corporations in this shrinking market and job losses will ensue. The Shine Endemol merger is a perfect example. They just don’t need two of everyone. The shakeout has just begun.
Now Southern Star/Endemol. SS sold out years ago.
The foreign owned mega Indies make the Aus TV landscape a far less creative, dumber place. By no means by the fault of those running the companies locally.
You can only hope Mark, Carl and some of the bigger hitters on contract with those mega Indies might soon kickstart (restart) the local Indie industry. Thing is, you start a local Indie with the view of one day selling for the highest possible price and you’ll get the highest price from an overseas studio..
It’s official – Matt Weiner is a genius. It’s like a scene from Mad Men – what are letters on the door? Everyone busier than ever, bosses reporting up, presenting the “Gettysburg” address to the conference in the Bahamas – It’s good, but its going to get better (!) .