Europe’s entertainment and media companies need to “bulk up” and “create gravity” to compete with American studios and tech giants, the CEO of Greece’s Antenna Group told NEM Dubrovnik delegates today.
In a keynote speech in Croatia followed by an interview hosted by Deadline, veteran exec Henning Tewes outlined six main themes that would define the future of entertainment in Europe. With Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery set to merge and U.S. tech and AI companies growing at vast rates, there has been much soul-searching in Europe, and Tewes’ talk attempted to address the future.
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Primarily, his thesis is that European companies “are, above all, in the business of creating attention” through content and experiences, which in term produces the “gravity” that pulls audiences in and creates the attachment to bring them back.
To achieve that, Tewes echoed Central European Media Enterprises CEO Sam Barnett, who yesterday suggested scale was European companies’ only defence against the likes of Netflix and YouTube.
“Netflix, Disney, YouTube, Amazon, Apple, Paramount, WBD and Live Nation are not simply content companies,” he said. “They are ecosystems combining content, technology, data, advertising, direct consumer relationships, franchises, experiences and global capital. European players do not have this strength.
“We have culture, language, and proximity. We have news brands with civic importance. We have all sorts of other things. But we also have the problem that our markets are simply so much smaller. Our regulation has assumed for years that competition is between national broadcasters, when the real competitive set now includes YouTube, Netflix, TikTok, Meta, Amazon and Apple. Luckily, the view of what is the competitive set is changing now.”
Tewes pointed to his former company, RTL, acquiring Sky Deutschland and Comcast-owned Sky’s pending deal for ITV in the UK as examples of “inspiration” and a more open regulatory environment in Europe.
Next, he argued European companies would need to invest “much more time and probably money on the emotional attachment to our brands and our content,” before extolling the virtues of live events and experiences in building IP.
“We are in the process of creating attention,” he said. “The bad news is that our shows on television or streaming compete with experiences that are more immersive and more intense. The good news is that a strong IP can create clips, conversation, talent, formats, podcasts, live events, brand partnerships and community.
“Not every show can become a franchise, but more shows can become flywheels than we currently allow. Hence my third thesis: Creating gravity encompasses the physical world. The experience economy is not separate from media. It is where media becomes physical, social and premium.”
Tewes’ fourth point was that “cinema is alive and kicking.” Besides owning 37 TV channels, two streaming services and production companies among other assets, the K Group-owned Antenna is also active in cinema in Greece the acquisition of Options & Town Cinemas.
“For us at Antenna Group, cinema is not peripheral,” said Tewes. “It is a strategic experience layer, another opportunity to connect with our audiences. It is about creating attachment. What we have created and are investing in, namely loyalty programmes, family offers, special programmes dedicated to cultural and educational content, local premieres, music events, and gaming, makes our cinemas part of a broader relationship. The future of cinema is not simply more films. It is more reasons to leave the house.”
Later asked by Deadline how traditional entertainment companies could court the likes of Markiplier and Kane Parsons, Tewes opined that attempting a top-down approach with digital and YouTube creators would have the opposite effect and the correct path would be to offer distribution to their films.
As Tewes’ speech wound down, he called out those suggesting European news operations were waning. “News is a growth business and traditional news organizations have plenty of opportunity ahead of them,” he said, citing that though the likes of The Joe Rogan Experience and The Rest is Politics were “great” but “not re-creatable” in non-English-languages.
He added: “If legacy media brands get their act together, they can talk to their audiences on an equal footing and very successfully too. Think about The Daily. If the NYT can do it, why can European media companies not, in their own languages and for their own audiences?”
Tewes said all these points collectively left Antenna “in the right place, and fighting the right fight” in news, live entertainment, cinema, TV and streaming.
He concluded saying: “Television creates reach. Streaming depth and data. News creates trust. Cinema, events and location-based entertainment create experiences and attachment.
“This is not about pretending we are Netflix or Disney. We are not. It is about the reality of being a European, multi-market, multi-business entertainment group that understands what I would call the new logic: local roots plus regional scale; free reach plus paid depth; screens plus real-life experiences. All of this, taken together, creates gravity.”
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