RTL Nederland has unveiled its new organisational structure resulting from its new, so-called Fan-Centric growth strategy with 85 full-time posts facing redundancy.
As a result, there will be fewer layers of management and some departments are being centralised to pool expertise. In addition, some new departments are being set up to deploy the strategy, particularly with respect to data, marketing and technology. On top of this restructuring, the company anticipates further redundancies during the first half of 2019.
“We need the new organisational structure so that we can swiftly implement our fan-centric growth strategy. Its aims are to further stimulate collaboration, provide fresh knowledge and new skills with the space these need to thrive and build brands that meet the real needs of viewers, followers and users,” said RTL Nederland CEO Sven Sauvé.
“The tremendous growth currently experienced by Videoland is a clear indication that we’re making the right choices. The restructuring is necessary to make us even more agile and to sharpen our focus throughout the entire company. At the same time, we’re going to invest even more in content, creativity, data and technology.” Sauvé goes on: “Over the past few days, we’ve informed everyone about the staff-related consequences of this transformation. RTL [Nederland] is a tight-knit team, so saying goodbye to people hurts, but we know it’s also necessary.
“As a local media business, we harbour great ambitions regarding both linear viewing and the digital domain. To achieve this ambition, as an organisation we need to focus and be flexible enough to seize new opportunities quickly. In a constantly shifting media landscape, our objective is clear: to stand out by telling stories of key interest to everyone in the Netherlands, stories that touch people’s hearts and minds. And I believe that we’re the best at doing this, because we focus 100 per cent on the needs and motivations of Dutch consumers.”
The new organisational structure will comprise five business units:
– Business to Consumer, focusing on growing centralised video-on-demand activities (Videoland and RTL XL);
– Programming & Marketing, focusing on effectively programming and marketing content across all platforms, channels and other outlets;
– Content & Production, focusing on the development, purchase and production of the best content for Dutch viewers and followers;
– Technology, which will be responsible for all technological processes and services; and
– Business to Business, focusing on matching advertisers’ demands to consumers’ needs.
Matthias Scholten, the current Chief Content Officer, will resign from the management and lead the company’s creative unit.
“I enjoyed being a member of the management team for nine years, but creativity is my life blood. I want to do less managing and more creating! Fortunately, I can do this at RTL [Nederland], because here there are endless possibilities for developing new creative concepts, both on TV and in the digital domain. So as from 1 August I’ll be back getting my hands dirty again”, said Matthias Scholten.
Lucien Brouwer, the current Chief Consumer Officer, will assume Matthias Scholten’s role until the end of the year.
In addition to carrying out its structural reorganisation, RTL Nederland intends to invest tens of millions of euros over the coming years in content, data analysis, technology and marketing to implement its fan-centric growth strategy.
The works council has approved the plans and a social plan has been agreed with the trade unions. The new organisational structure will take effect on 1 August 2018.
