SBS6 names ex-IDTV boss as channel chief

Dutch broadcaster SBS6 has hired the former CEO of All3Media-owned prodco IDTV as its new channel manager.

Karin de Groot will replace interim chief Patrick van Mierlo, who had been filling in since the exit of René Oosterman in the midst of poor ratings.

SBS Broadcasting content director Remco van Leen said SBS6 was planning to “expand with new titles and nights”, and that de Groot’s “TV experience and intuition” meant the broadcaster had “the right woman in place”.

De Groot has been with Amsterdam-based IDTV for five years, producing various shows for SBS6 during that time.

Before that, she worked for John de Mol’s Endemol Netherlands, and was channel manager of SBS6 sister Net5. Joining SBS6 reunites her with media mogul de Mol, who owns a significant shareholding in the network and often uses it as a seeding ground for new international formats.

“I worked at SBS as a station manager Net5 with great pleasure for five years and I still know many people there,” said de Groot. “I am looking forward to going to work for SB 6, the flagship of a company that has many new opportunities and collaboration opportunities in the media field. ”

At SBS6, she faces a big task. Local press sources had described reported management level disagreements as resulting in a ‘House of Cards [situation] at SBS’. Interim chief van Mierlo had been parachuted in as a former de Mol operative during the early days of Endemol Netherlands, which is now part of the merged Endemol Shine Netherlands.

De Mol’s Talpa Media and Finnish media group Sanoma have owned SBS Netherlands since 2012, when they acquired it from ProSiebenSat.1.

The SBS operation comprises the main channel, plus Net 5, Veronica and movie network SBS9.