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Fremantle Expands Group COO Andrea Scrosati’s Role to CEO for Continental Europe

Fremantle has promoted Andrea Scrosati, expanding his current group COO role with the additional role of CEO for continental Europe, increasing the markets he will be in charge of within the growing RTL-owned production and distribution giant.

Scrosati will continue reporting to Jennifer Mullin, who is Fremantle’s group CEO. He will now have the added responsibility for Fremantle’s businesses in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Nordics and Poland. These markets join Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Israel, which already report to him.

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Scrosati will continue to oversee Fremantle’s global drama unit, its mergers and acquisitions strategy, plus marketing and communications, as well as the increasingly integrated constellation-like group’s newly established global docs unit.

Fremantle owns a panoply of companies across continental Europe, comprising German studio UFA and Fiction Valley and Blue Circle in the Netherlands; several companies in the Nordics, including Miso Film in Denmark, Sweden and Norway; French label Kwai; and Italy’s Wildside and The Apartment. They are also in advanced talks to acquire Italy’s prominent Lux Vide outfit, maker of the high-end “Medici,” “Devils” and “Leonardo” skeins.

In Israel, Fremantle has full ownership of Abot Hameiri, the Israeli production company behind international drama hit “Shtisel.”

They also own an assortment of British outfits such as Naked and Euston Films; Original Productions in the U.S.; and Tiger in Australia.

Mullin, who is now based in the U.S., in a statement underlined Fremantle’s “exciting and ambitious growth plan in place to capitalize on the enormous global appetite for great content — across all genres, platforms and regions.”

“This is an extremely exciting time for all at Fremantle and the organizational changes outlined mean we are well poised to respond to the many opportunities that await us,” she said.

“I would like to thank Andrea for taking on this wider role; he has been exceptional in helping us grow the business over the last three years and I am confident he will bring the same strategic vision, creativity and passion to his new role,” she added.

Scrosati, who thanked Mullin for her “support and true leadership,” said he looked forward to working closely with his colleagues in the Netherlands, Belgium, Nordics, Poland and Germany “along with the wider Fremantle team, as we look to continue to grow the business and shape an exciting next chapter for the company.”

In August, RTL Group announced its goal to increase Fremantle’s full-year revenue target to €3 billion ($3.5 billion) by 2025, as part of its wider growth strategy which entails “investing in production companies, content, and talent around the world, to source the best creative ideas, develop and create strong and unmissable IP,” the statement said.

Prior to joining Fremantle in September 2018, Scrosati was executive VP of programming for Sky Italia, where he oversaw all non-sport programming of the platform. In that role, he started shaking up Italy’s TV landscape in 2008 with a batch of edgy scripted content and was instrumental in Sky Italia’s commissioning of some of Europe’s hottest TV series, including “Gomorrah” and the Paolo Sorrentino-directed “The Young Pope.”

Fremantle, which is still probably best known as the outfit behind “X Factor,” “American Idol” and “The Price Is Right,” is gradually growing into a global powerhouse as a scripted content originator, producer and distributor. Besides having some 60 TV series in the works, the most recent of which is upcoming Ole Bornedal-directed “Shadow in my Eyes,” in 2021 they produced 14 movies, including Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” that recently scored two prizes at the Venice Film Festival.

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