
Gerhard Zeiler (born 20 July 1955) is an Austrian businessman who is the current
president of
Warner Bros. Discovery International, part of
Warner Bros. Discovery. Before taking up the role at Turner/Warner, Mr Zeiler was
chief executive officer of the German media company
RTL Group and a member of the executive board of
Bertelsmann, the media conglomerate that owns the RTL Group.
Early life
Zeiler was born in
Ottakring,
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, to Hans and Dorothea Zeiler. He was the first born of
identical twins.
[Gerhard Zeiler: a portrait. RTL Group. http://www.rtlgroup.com/www/assets/file_asset/RTLGroup_PortraitGZ_engl_clear_20110102.pdf]
His early education took place in his native Vienna, after which he studied
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
,
sociology
Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
and educational science at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...
.
Career history
Summary
Zeiler has worked in
television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
for 23 years – eight in the
public service broadcasting sector; the remainder in
commercial television.
His former employer, RTL Group, operates 40
TV channels in 10 countries, and owns
FremantleMedia, a content and production company that operates in 25 countries and exports its programming to over 150 countries.
Early years
After graduating, Zeiler began his early career working as a scientific assistant at the Austrian Institute for Occupational Research.
[Bloomberg Business Week executive profile of Gerhard Zeiler. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=1133754&ticker=RTL:LX&previousCapId=1882362&previousTitle=SKY%20DEUTSCHLAND%20AG]
After three years at the institute, his career took a change of direction when he began working as a freelance
journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
. In 1979 he was appointed press spokesman for the then
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n minister for education and the arts, Dr
Fred Sinowatz. He followed Dr Sinowatz to the federal chancellor's office in 1983, going on to work for federal chancellor Dr
Franz Vranitzky.
Television
In 1986, Zeiler became secretary general of the
Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) in Vienna. Despite being only 24, Zeiler had already realised that "television is part of my life".
In 1991, he moved to
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
when he was appointed CEO of German commercial TV channel,
Tele 5. In 1992 he became CEO of
RTL II. Two years later, in 1994, Zeiler returned to Vienna when he was appointed CEO of ORF.
RTL Group
In November 1998, Zeiler joined RTL Group, being appointed CEO of
RTL Television in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
. He succeeded Helmut Thoma.
The role gave him responsibility for the German television channels RTL Television,
Vox, RTL II,
Super RTL, and N-TV.
In March 2003 Zeiler became CEO of RTL Group.
In 2005, he passed the management of RTL Television to Anke Schäferkordt, so that he could focus solely on the company's international entertainment network.
Zeiler has been a member of the executive board of Bertelsmann AG since October 2005. He is also a member of the supervisory boards of Groupe M6 in France and RTL Television in Germany, and vice chairman of the board of the Greek Alpha Media Group.
In August 2010, Zeiler's contract was renewed until the end of 2015.
On April 18, 2012, Zeiler left RTL "by mutual and amicable agreement" and "at his own request" to take over the international business at
Turner Broadcasting System.
Warner Bros. Discovery
In April 2012, Zeiler became president of the Turner Broadcasting System International group,
WarnerMedia
Warner Media, LLC (Trade name, doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational corporation, multinational mass media and show business, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 ...
's TV subsidiary, which also operates channels such as
Turner Network Television (TNT),
Cartoon Network and
CNN. Zeiler's new activities include responsibility for all entertainment and children's channels and associated media services outside North America, as well as the distribution and commercial activities of CNN International. This is 130 channels in more than 200 countries with 3800 employees and $2 billion in revenue. In March 2019, WarnerMedia's new CEO,
John Stankey, also put him in charge of the company's entire advertising business. The latter's successor,
Jason Kilar, made Zeiler head of WarnerMedia's reorganized international division. Zeiler is responsible for WarnerMedia's entire international business, as well as program production for all stations, including the new streaming service
HBO Max, on an international level.
Other activities
From 2002 to 2004, Zeiler was a member of the
Board of Trustees of the
Bertelsmann Stiftung, which holds a majority in Bertelsmann.
Zeiler is a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group, a private, annual gathering of intellectual figures, political leaders, and business executives.
Outspoken
Zeiler is often outspoken in his views on the value of television as a medium, despite often challenging evidence to the contrary. In a 2010 interview with Dutch newspaper, ''
NRC Handelsblad'', Zeiler commented on the recovery of the
television advertising market in 2010. "In Western Europe, our channels are now performing at the same level as in 2008… Other media, such as the publishing sector, have not bounced back anything like as strongly".
He is convinced that
advertisers believe in the effectiveness of television – "TV is bigger than ever" – and believes "Television will remain the mass medium – the only medium capable of assembling truly mass audiences".
Zeiler has long been a strong supporter of
British television. Speaking at the 2009 worldview address in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, he said European television makers had a huge amount to learn from the
UK.
He is one of the few non-British recipients of the
Royal Television Society (RTS) fellowship, and was chair of the 2008 RTS international conference 'Opportunity Knocks'.
He believes "Britain is an incredible centre for talent, creativity and ideas", and that even the US networks look to the UK for inspiration. He went on to say, "British production companies are the absolute best in the world when it comes to non-scripted,
non-fiction formats".
Zeiler has also been outspoken in his support of calls to relax UK
product placement rules, to help struggling
commercial broadcasters. He believes, "Product placement is a commercial fact of life… Carefully regulated product placement is a legitimate
revenue stream and the money raised could be used to support the production of original content – content viewers want to watch".
Summarising his objective for RTL for the future, Zeiler commented: "We are developing our broadcasting operations into digital TV families with a presence on all new platforms. We will systematically meet the rising demand for attractive content and expand our production arm, FremantleMedia, with new talent, new formats and by doing business in new markets".
Recognition
In 2004, Zeiler was voted media personality of the year at the
Mipcom audiovisual content
trade show in
Cannes. The award came at a time when RTL Group continued to set new records, despite the crisis evident in the media sector.
In January 2011, Zeiler will become the first non-American to receive
NATPE's Brandon Tartikoff legacy award.
[
Natpe press release. Dick Ebersol, Mary Hart, Regis Philbin and Gerhard Zeiler to receive Natpe’s 8th annual Brandon Tartikoff legacy award
http://www.natpe.org/natpe/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=40:press-releases&id=387:dick-ebersol-mary-hart-regis-philbin-and-gerhard-zeiler-to-receive-natpes-8th-annual-brandon-tartikoff-legacy-award&Itemid=72 ] Named after arguably one of television's greatest programmers, the award was created to recognise television professionals who exhibit extraordinary passion, leadership, independence and vision in the process of creating television programming.
Zeiler shares the eighth annual award with
Dick Ebersol,
Mary Hart and
Regis Philbin.
Commenting on the award, Rick Feldman, NATPE president and CEO, said, "We believe that Dick, Mary, Regis and Gerhard have remarkably shaped the global television industry on both business and pop cultural levels, and truly embody the spirit of the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award".
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeiler, Gerhard
1955 births
Living people
Warner Bros. Discovery people
HBO people
ORF (broadcaster) people
RTL Group people