Business News Digital Industry People

YouTube poaches FremantleMedia CEO Cécile Frot-Coutaz

By | Published on Thursday 22 March 2018

Cécile Frot-Coutaz

FremantleMedia CEO Cécile Frot-Coutaz is leaving the company in order to become Google’s Head Of YouTube for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

A powerful figure in the TV industry, Frot-Coutaz has worked for Fremantle for two decades, becoming CEO in 2012. The announcement seemingly took the TV industry by surprise. Although she is thought to have a twelve month notice period at her current employer, which gives them all time to get used to the idea.

In a statement, YouTube’s Chief Business Offer Robert Kyncl says: “Cécile comes with incredible experience in the media industry. Her leadership, guidance, strong network and deep industry understanding will be invaluable as we continue to strengthen our partnerships and grow our creator base throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa”.

Frot-Coutaz adds: “YouTube is the voice of a generation and has become an integral part of the world’s cultural conversation. The opportunity to be part of that conversation and to work with Robert, his team and the wider Google community was too good to turn down. I will miss FremantleMedia enormously – it’s a global creative powerhouse at the top of its game, and I will continue to watch with pride as a devoted fan”.

Her appointment comes as YouTube prepares to roll out its Red subscription service in more markets around the world. It is also attempting to become a destination for traditional TV viewing.

Last week at the SXSW conference, former record industry exec Lyor Cohen, now YouTube’s Global Head Of Music, confirmed plans to also launch a music-specific subscription service.

According to Bloomberg, Cohen’s big plan to convince people to pay for musical entertainment on his platform is to bombard users who spend long periods listening to music on YouTube for free with more ads. It will be a policy to “frustrate and seduce” consumers into using the paid-for music service. I’m sure advertisers will be keen to hear that they are being used to annoy people into paying to stop seeing their ads.



READ MORE ABOUT: | | |