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ICE venture rejigs to become one entity
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 17 April 2018
The companies operating under the ICE banner – that being the joint venture between collecting societies PRS, GEMA and STIM – are being merged into one entity to be known, simply, as ICE. And that company will be run by new CEO Thorsten Sauer.
ICE began life as a joint database initiative between UK-based PRS and Swedish collecting society STIM. It was later expanded, with GEMA on board, to include a division offering licences to multi-territory streaming services that cover the song repertoires of PRS, STIM, GEMA and their partners, and another division that processes digital royalties.
Since the expansion there have been ICE companies in the UK, Germany and Sweden, and two brands: ICE Services and ICE Operations. Now there is just ICE. So don’t go trying affixing any additional words to the ICE brand from this point onwards, otherwise you will be wrong.
Sauer was previously President of Broadcast And Media Services at Ericsson and, says ICE, while there “helped build one of the largest media services companies in the industry, serving clients such as the BBC, ITV, Disney and Viacom”.
Commenting on his new gig, Sauer said: “I am delighted to be joining ICE and look forward to working with an experienced team and organisation that is so highly regarded in the industry. I believe that by combining the strength of the different ICE companies, we are in a great position to deliver best-in-class services to the industry in these exciting times”.
PRS For Music boss Robert Ashcroft was previously CEO of the ICE business in the UK, while Markus Nees was CEO in Sweden and Germany. The former will remain a board member, while the latter will become COO.
