For Broadcast September 03, 2008

Tom Toumazis' defection to Endemol must have caused a grunt of frustration at the Mouse House and raised a canny smile from Ynon Kreiz.

The latter was appointed chief exec of Endemol in May by the backers of last year's highly leveraged Ű3.1bn buy-out of the reality format producer. He believes Endemol can ramp up its distribution business by moving beyond selling its own reality formats into selling scripted programmes by other producers.

Distribution is considered an "easier" business than production and scale is what makes it sing. Just ask Fremantle Media, BBC Worldwide and the Hollywood studios.

Kreiz sees the TV distribution business on the brink of consolidation and clearly believes that Endemol can be one of the leaders.

The distribution rights to a TV series is an asset easily understood by the financial world. Given the state of the capital markets and the fact that Endemol was financed at the top of the credit bubble, anything that promises to bring in new cash and new assets is seen as a good thing.

The question is whether Toumazis can make Endemol's 25 global production offices into a more commercial operation from a distribution point of view?

It's about adding more programmes and being better co-ordinated, leveraging the existing library better and bringing in scripted and co-produced programmes.

Out of the blocks, Toumazis has the right relationships, but one insider says it will likely take three years to see if Toumazis can build Endemol into a major distribution player. That can't be soon enough for Goldman Sachs and Endemol backers looking to ramp up Endemol's cash generation.