Marc Welinski has left his position of MD of Mezzo to become special advisor of the jazz and related music forms SVOD platform Qwest TV.
He will be in charge of advising Qwest TV’s management on the platform’s international editorial and commercial developments. In addition, he will support Qwest TV’s team for the launch of a new international platform dedicated to classical music and opera, Qwest Classical, which will complement Qwest TV’s jazz and world music services.
Welinski began his career with the Technicolor company group (formerly Thomson) and then joined Vivendi (formerly Générale des Eaux) as cable television activities’ regional director. He joined France Télévisions in 1996 and worked on the launch of TPS, a digital platform that brought together TF1, France Télévision, France Télécom and RTL. He then created Mezzo with Jacques Chancel, the music-opera-dance channel, which he managed for four years. From 2000 to 2005, he was director of the audiovisual division of Orange (formerly France Telecom) while remaining a managing director of Mezzo. Between 2005 and 2011, he was CEO of Pathé Live, the events subsidiary of the Pathé group, and initiated live broadcasts in France in opera and ballet theatres.
From 2011 to 2014, he was the marketing director of Eutelsat, and 2018, he was recalled by the Lagardère Group to head the Mezzo channel until its acquisition by the Les Echos-Le Parisien Group.
Commenting on Welinksi’s arrival at Qwest TV, its co-founder Reza Ackbaraly said: “I am delighted to welcome Marc Welinski to Qwest TV. He is an expert in audiovisual media and his skills in classical music will enable us to extend our offer to a genre too often reserved for specialists.
Welinski added: “It is a great pleasure to join Quincy Jones (the other co-founder), a living jazz legend, and the talented Reza Ackbaraly in this new adventure. My credo has always been to democratize good music and bring it to as many people as possible, whether on TV with Mezzo or in movies with Pathé live. Qwest TV is in today’s most promising niche, the digital era, with the tremendous international potential it offers. Qwest TV’s audiovisual services will soon cover the entire spectrum of musical emotion, borderless and without exclusivity, from classical and jazz to today’s trends.”