New Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade has talked up the potential for TMZ to become a “huge entertainment studio,” setting out his stall at Mipcom Cannes for the first time since he replaced Charlie Collier.
TMZ was acquired in a $50M deal last year from then-WarnerMedia, handing Fox control of TMZ’s linear, digital and experiential assets.
“We feel there’s an opportunity for TMZ to be a huge entertainment studio,” said Wade. “21st Century Fox has allowed us to invest and acquire at a time when other networks are consolidating and spending less.”
Wade has already been testing the waters with TMZ-produced content in his former job as reality chief with series such as UFOs: The Pentagon Proof, which aired on Fox last summer and Who Really Killed Michael Jackson?, which aired in September.
The tabloid’s syndicated TV show TMZ on TV has aired on Fox’s owned and operated stations since 2007 and has been renewed through the 2022/23 season.
TMZ was founded by former KCBS-TV Los Angeles correspondent Harvey Levin and the late Telepictures executive Jim Paratore in 2005.
Having bought the likes of Bento Box, MarVista and TMZ in recent years, Wade was pushed during the Mipcom keynote on whether more M&A is incoming, to which he said, “if there’s a company out there that we feel can help grow and scale our business, then we are in the market.”
Speaking alongside Fox Entertainment President Michael Thorn, who renewed animated series Grimsburg, and Fox Entertainment Global head Fernando Szew.
Wade was promoted to replace Collier, who joined Roku, earlier this month.
He said that he and his team had come to Cannes with the company’s checkbook to buy shows.
“We can be great partners, buyers and sellers and the good news is we have our checkbooks with us and are excited to share them with everyone in this room and market.”
He added, “While others are trying to hide content behind paywalls, we see the opportunity of working with networks, producers and distributors to get our content out further, and quite frankly to monetize it” he said. “Whereas before there were four networks there are now 1000 so you need to go to the platforms to monetize your content otherwise it’s just not possible.”
Mipcom, according to Wade, will become “ever more important as nimble, smart commercial deals focused on content become more necessary.”
Elsewhere, questioned on reports that Rupert Murdoch is considering merging Fox and News Corp again, Wade simply said: “That’s way above my paygrade”