“We love to entertain you” is the advertising slogan of the television company Pro Sieben Sat 1: We love to entertain you. The company manages to do this, not only with the program, but also with explosive personal details: On Monday evening it was surprisingly announced that the CEO Rainer Beaujean, 54, was leaving. Former RTL boss Bert Habets, 51, will take over on November 1st. The native Dutchman has been on the supervisory board of the television company since May 2022.
Habets has experience leading global media companies, as well as expertise in launching and growing video streaming services. The previous CEO, Beaujean, resigned from office “by mutual agreement with the supervisory board,” the company said. Surprisingly, Beaujean’s contract was only extended until mid-2027 in December 2021.
During the Corona crisis, Beaujean took over from Max Conze, who left as CEO after only a short time and after considerable turbulence. Even before that, there were always quarrels at the top of the company. Actually, Beaujean, who did not come from the media industry, wanted to ensure peace at Pro Sieben Sat 1. But the company is struggling, advertising revenue is under pressure, and online business activities are suffering.
Speculations about the influence of the Berlusconi media holding
It is also explosive that there is unrest among the shareholders. The Italian major shareholder Media For Europe (MFE, formerly Mediaset), which is controlled by the family of the Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi, controls about a quarter of the shares. There is always speculation that the Italians could take over more shares and ultimately control of Pro Sieben Sat 1. Beaujean had always resisted this, also publicly, and insisted on the independence of the Munich company. A spokeswoman emphasized on Monday evening that major shareholders had no influence on the recent chief personnel.
The strategic direction will also remain unchanged under the new leadership, she said. Pro Sieben Sat 1 concentrates on three areas: on broadcasters such as Sat 1 , Pro Sieben, Kabel 1 and others, on the streaming service Joyn and thirdly on a number of Internet businesses such as Verivox, Parship or online car rental. The new boss should make “a significant contribution to the growth plans”, said the chairman of the supervisory board, Andreas Wiele. What that means: unclear.
The real reasons for the change of boss initially remained open, especially if there should be no change in strategy. Habets was at RTL for around 20 years, and the Bertelsmann subsidiary has recently repeatedly publicly brought a merger with the Munich company into play. Beaujean also objected. RTL and Pro Sieben Sat1 – that should now be up to date again. However, it is doubtful whether the antitrust authorities would agree to a merger at all. Both groups would dominate the market for private television in Germany by a wide margin.