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Ten’s chief sales officer: Paramount ANZ & new immersive experiences for advertisers
Mumbrella's Emma Shepherd chats to Ten's Rod Prosser to discuss the name change from 10ViacomCBS to Paramount ANZ, and what that means for the business, as well as how the new sales team is future-proofing the department, and why Total TV and the growth of BVOD is not the only priority for the company.
In February, 10 ViacomCBS officially changed its corporate name to Paramount ANZ, announcing the name change on the company’s LinkedIn page.
Network 10’s chief sales officer, Rod Prosser tells Mumbrella despite the name change, the company has gone from strength-to-strength and has helped really cement the company’s overall position in Australia and New Zealand.
Network 10’s chief sales officer, Rod Prosser.
“The name change is significant and I think that our global principal pointed out that it really reflects the power of our content, and importantly, positions us as leaders in the future of entertainment,” explains Prosser. “Of course there has been a name change, and things may change in terms of corporate branding, but it hasn’t necessarily pivoted our strategy, which has been keenly focused on entertainment. Everything that was in the works, in terms of the broader strategy of the business continues, and that is to produce great content and distribute it as far and wide as we can.”
The new Paramount name helps reflect brands including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television Studios, Paramount Network and Showtime, Nickelodeon, MTV, the network’s linear primary and multi channels, as well as its BVOD platform, 10 Play.
“Another phrase we have internally is distribute to the big screen, the little screen and every screen in between, and I think that’s reflective of the size and scale of the business,” says Prosser.
”The really key part for the people within the business and hopefully this reflects outside of the business, that we have really integrated all of our assets, whether that be Nickelodeon, Paramount +, Network 10, together in one place, we all operate as one, and obviously off the back of that, we’re really transforming our sales team to evolve and meet the needs of our customers and advertisers,” he says.
In March, Paramount ANZ made some key sales leadership appointments. Under the new changes, all advertising revenue including Network 10, 10 Play and Paramount+ will fall within the national sales All Screens team, led by Lisa Squillace, national sales director, and the state sales directors.
Prosser tells Mumbrella the new team helps “future-proof” the sales departments as well as the business in the way they sell.
“The reason that we’ve done that is that as we move into a much more automated environment, we really want to be able to have upstream conversations with our customers and advertisers, and give them one touch point as they come into the business,” he says. “There is still a lot of transformation that’s happening in the sales team. It’s important that we put in really great people to lead the charge, from the national sales director, to the state sales directors, along with our head of digital and digital strategy working collectively to galvanize the broader team to bring it all to life.”
He adds the evolution of TV and the addition of Connected TV really presents exciting opportunities to grow parts of the network.
“Our Connected TV offering is arguably a big part of the business’s future,” admits Prosser. “For us as a business we’re investing a lot of time, effort and revenue in technology people to build our ad-tech ecosystem, and ad product to meet the needs of our customers. It’s also about us wanting to dial up the ad experience in Connected TV, because there is so much more you can do on a Connected TV obviously more than you can in linear.”
Prosser explains the network is focusing on “immersive experiences for advertisers.”
“These experiences will roll out over the next 12 to18 months and beyond. We will have some really exciting announcements to come on that. A lot of time, effort and money, but we’re really excited as a network to announce some exciting news soon,” explains Prosser.
He adds despite Total TV and the growth of BVOD being a strong talking point in the industry, and of importance, it’s much “bigger than just that.”
“It’s also really important to recognise that at Paramount we’re much bigger than that. Globally, we’ve got a fairly significant AVOD service, as well as locally an SVOD service that’s exceeding all expectations, and STV channels, and our FTA linear channels, and of course, our BVOD product.
“We have a very diverse ecosystem. While Total TV, which is FTA and BVOD, is important, it’s just part of our ecosystem, there is a lot of work and digital transformation that’s happening,” he says.
“The linear parts of our business, like Network 10, and the other channels, will always be given plenty of attention. We’ve got MasterChef just around the corner, which is going to be epic.
“We had Survivor, and I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here. If there’s ever a notion that we’re walking away from the tentpole shows on Ten, it’s not true. We also just announced The Real Love Boat,” explains Prosser.
Last month, U.S. network CBS and Network 10 ordered localised versions of The Real Love Boat, a reality dating competition series inspired by The Love Boat, the hit 1970s scripted series that used Princess Cruises ships as its setting.
Production begins soon, and both versions are expected to air in the US and Australia later this year. The Real Love Boat is produced by Eureka Productions in association with Buster Productions. Chris Culvenor, Paul Franklin, and Wes Dening serve as executive producers for Eureka
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