The Digital Entertainment Group Europe (DEGE) today confirmed a new line-up for its Board of Directors as well as announcing that it has formalised the implementation of the DEG Nordic Committee, which has been created to support the growth of the digital entertainment market in that territory.
Assuming the role of co-chair for the DEGE will be Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group’s Vice President and Director of Sales, Doug Fox alongside the incumbent Nicola Pearcey, Lionsgate UK’s President of Distribution. The new line-up will be further supported by Amy Jo Smith, President & CEO of influential sister organisation DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, who will also be acting as an officer to the refreshed DEGE board.
Speaking about his appointment as co-chair, Doug Fox said: “Warner Bros has been an active partner of the DEGE for a long time now and we have watched the organisation grow in both stature and output to the point that it now acts as an arbiter of cross-territory impetus and direction. I am excited to take my seat on the DEGE Board as co-chair and look forward to further shaping the conversation around collaborative best practice and driving the aims of the organisation forward to the benefit of all its members.”
Nicola Pearcey added: “The DEGE has worked hard to deepen its involvement across territories and to the benefit of our local businesses. The fact that we are now able to welcome Warner Bros to the top table with Doug Fox as our new co-chair lends credence to that, and is further evidenced by the fact that Amy Jo will also be joining as supporting officer. This underlines and strengthens the dotted line the DEGE has to the States and, that this is happening just as we also broaden our remit to also include the Nordic region is both symbolic and symptomatic of the organisation’s relevance and ambition.”
After many years of service, Jonathan Beardsworth, Vice President Sales & Marketing at Technicolor has stepped down from the board of the DEGE.
The DEG Nordic Committee will operate as a hub for the exploration, funding and execution of projects designed to drive consumer engagement with digital transaction in a region that boasts some of the most advanced digital infrastructure in the world[1], with the DEGE providing the committee with a robust structure of corporate governance to meet compliance and competition requirements as applicable to cross-industry collaboration aimed at maximising opportunities for growth.
The DEGE will also provide the framework for project development to assist the committee, with confirmed activity to include the development of a local digital sales tracker with GfK and the development and execution of an education-based campaign to promote digital consumption of entertainment titles to consumers. Future projects will also be considered by the Nordic Committee board as it develops.
The committee consists of representatives from NBCUniversal, Nordisk Film, SF Studios, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group and The Walt Disney Company, with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment participating through its membership to the British Association for Screen Entertainment as part of the UK trade body’s shared services agreement with the DEGE. That agreement will also see BASE act to facilitate the Nordic Committee across all aforementioned areas of governance and project development.
Peter Paumgardhen, Managing Director of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Scandinavia will chair the committee, with Johan Mannerhill, Managing Director of Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group Scandinavia and Adrian Mandrup, Nordisk Film’s President of Nordic Sales – Digital, Home Entertainment, TV & Consumer, jointly acting as deputy chair. Paumgardhen will also take a seat on the DEGE board to provide a direct route to report on the new committee’s progress.
Speaking of his appointment, Paumgardhen said: “My colleagues and I have been watching with interest as the DEGE has increasingly and proactively driven the conversation around championing the home entertainment category. Through the delivery of actionable insight, and by ensuring a clarity of collaboration and communication across a range of issues, the organisation has added clear value and so it was a very easy decision to work with the DEGE Board, and to take my place on it, to develop and steer the Nordic Committee. I’m excited to move to the next phase and bring some of that admirable ethos to local businesses.”
The DEGE is registered in the UK with a remit that includes the promotion of best practise across European territories and assisting in the localisation and execution of successful global initiatives. The newly created Nordic Committee will sit alongside the existing DEGE Digital Subgroup (which exists as a hub for sharing and developing best-practice promotional activity to drive the digital transactional market), with both groups feeding into and benefitting from the DEGE’s direct route to the Digital Entertainment Group.
[1] See report from Cable.co.uk https://www.cable.co.uk/broadband/research/worldwide-broadband-speed-league-2018/
