- Bartl assuming overall responsibility for Sat.1, ProSieben, kabel eins and N24 - Reorganization aims to strategically strengthen content - Better networking between German stations - Content managers will coordinate between stations - Thilo Proff Managing Director at ProSieben
Munich, May 5, 2008. As of today, Andreas Bartl, 45, will take over as Managing Director for German Free TV at the ProSiebenSat.1 Group. He will have overall responsibility for the Group's four principal German-language stations: Sat.1, ProSieben, kabel eins and N24. The reorganization aims to reinforce the Group's strong YTD ratings and to strategically strengthen content. The centralized structure is also intended to strengthen inter-platform usage of programming content. The new set-up is also an alignment to the Group's successful operational model in other countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden or Norway. Bartl will report to CEO Guillaume de Posch. He will be succeeded as managing director at ProSieben by Thilo Proff, 42, hitherto the station's Deputy Managing Director. The German channel family has increased its ratings by 0.5 percentage points to 29.3 percent YTD 2008 compared to YTD 2007. Particularly Sat.1 and ProSieben have shown strong growth with increases of 0.5 and 0.2 percentage points to 11.0 and 11.9 percent respectively.
Inter-station coordination will be overseen by content managers under Bartl's leadership. Joachim Kosack, now Fiction Manager at Sat.1, will be responsible for all fiction programming. Thomas Zwießler, Editor-in-Chief at ProSieben, will be in charge of infotainment and magazine shows. Michael Schmidt, Deputy Manager for Entertainment at ProSieben, will coordinate light entertainment for all the stations. For the time being, all three will handle their new duties as coordinators in addition to their work with their own stations. The content managers build a creative team that will strengthen the stations´ competitive positions by securing the best programming in German TV.
According to Guillaume de Posch, CEO of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group: "Content and channel brands are our most valuable assets. To secure sustainable growth of the channels, I have decided to reinforce content and brands by reorganizing the German family of stations along these two axes. This will allow us to better develop programming and to more efficiently tune the profiles of our stations on TV as well as the Internet according to their target groups. I am convinced that Andreas Bartl, as one of the most successful and most respected TV executives in Germany, will successfully lead the German channel family to TV 3.0 era.
Andreas Bartl, Managing Director German Free TV of ProSiebenSat.1 Group, said: Our stations have shown a considerable growth in ratings since the beginning of this year. My vision is to together with the channel managers build on the strong ratings and the creative experience of the German channel family to offer viewers the most exciting programming in German TV."
Andreas Bartl, 45, has been the Managing Director at ProSieben since 2005. Here he was able to position ProSieben as a leading brand for young entertainment. Under his leadership, some of the most successful TV formats of the past years in Germany have been established, including "Germany's Next Topmodel" or "Beat Your Host". He has been with the ProSiebenSat.1 Group since 1991. He took over managing feature films at ProSieben in 1995. He became the station's Program Scheduling Manager in 1996 and Deputy Programming Director in 1997. From 2000 to 2005, he was Managing Director at ProSieben's partner station kabel eins. He studied in Munich, specializing in American studies, communications and political science.
Thilo Proff, 42, has been Deputy Managing Director at ProSieben since 2006, with responsibilities for programming strategy and operations. He came to ProSiebenSat.1 in 1998, initially working at kabel eins where he headed the Information and Magazines department from 2000 to 2004. In 2004, he became the station's Editor-in-Chief and in 2006, he became its Programming Manager. After studying business administration and economics in Bonn and Cologne, he worked at WDR, Vox, Sat.1 and the Janus film production company.
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