Ronald Goes: Why going organic works for WBITVP

In the nearly three years since its seismic and – let’s face it – out-of-the-blue merger, nearly all of Warner Bros Discovery’s (WBD) countless strands, divisions, sub-divisions and business units have undergone major reconstructive surgery.

Warner Bros International TV Production Group (WBITVP) has largely remained immune to the changes under its president Ronald Goes. There has been some local restructuring – Our Yorkshire Farm label Renegade Pictures being folded into UK siblings Wall to Wall and Ricochet, for example.

But the group has maintained its global presence across its 22 production businesses in 14 territories, including Wall to Wall and Ricochet’s UK stablemate Twenty Twenty, scripted label Eyeworks in Belgium and BlazHoffski in the Netherlands, plus further outfits in, among other places, Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.

Indeed, the past six months has been marked by key creative appointments in WBITVP’s Belgian and German businesses and the snaring of BBC Studios’ veteran André Renaud to head global formats and unscripted tape distribution – an appointment that is considered a coup.

While acknowledging the recent “tough times” in the global industry, Goes says the clear outlook for WBITVP is organic growth, buoyed by the fact that during the difficulties of the past 18 months, the group “was still on the good side of the market”.

On that note, Broadcast revealed earlier this month that the group had expanded its footprint further, with Italy becoming the 15th country to house a WBITVP production business.

“The driving element for us was that Italy is the last big western European country where we hadn’t put boots on the ground yet,” he tells Broadcast in an exclusive interview. “If you want to keep growing, both internally and by adding new territories, Italy was never in doubt.”

Goes uses the prism of the Italian business, which is headed by WBITVP Iberia chief and Italian native Stefano Torrisi – “well-respected as a producer” in the country – to highlight how his group is setting out its stall in 2025 and beyond.

“It’s all about people, creativity and IP in our industry, and that’s not rocket science,” he says. “But it’s something that we say at the beginning and end of every meeting internally, and what I say to myself in the mirror every day.”

Strategic moves

Following Goes’ arrival in 2009, he oversaw an initial flurry of M&A activity, but the former Talpa Media, Endemol and RTL Group exec says the group’s position in the market has been defined not by acquiring companies but by “setting up the best management teams, letting them get to know each other, making sure that there’s a free flow of IP, but also sharing knowledge and experiences”.

Goes is all about organic growth, noting that “M&A is not our thing any more”.

“We have good IP, we know that. We’re not being arrogant, but that’s what our clients keep telling us,” he says. “So let’s find the best people in the local market to run with these ideas and adapt them for local needs. It takes a bit longer, but setting up for us is a strategic gameplay. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and then we can push hard on higher-quality delivery for local needs.”

It’s no exaggeration when Goes talks about “marathons” – while the Milan-based operation has only just been set up, WBITVP France was launched nearly a decade ago.

As it enters the Italian market, WBITVP will immediately take back production of First Dates Italy (Primo Appuntamento), the nine series of which so far have been produced by local indie Stand By Me.

The Italy launch has been in the works since before Mipcom, Broadcast understands, with the group working hard over the past four months to get it ready, according to Goes. As such, the company’s approach in the country will be measured rather than a frenzied attempt to claw back the other WBD-produced or owned formats that are on air – such as dating series The Golden Bachelor and satirical news bulletin series Caiga Quien Caiga (known locally as Le Iene).

“It will now be a ‘blood, sweat and tears’ period of rolling up our sleeves, and we won’t have 10 announcements in three months,” Goes says. “The thing is, we don’t want to because we’re setting up a physical office, making sure the core team is there. When we’re through that, I would dare to say from a strategic perspective, we will be better set than if we were running an M&A transaction and taking a minority or majority share.”

Goes’ fiscal judiciousness is a calling card, according to figures within WBD. One senior production executive notes his finance background and how he “runs a tight ship, but always hits his numbers”.

“He has a very European and global perspective and manages his operating companies with a good sense of what’s going on around the world in ad spend and buying,” the exec adds.

Italy’s robust linear business and developing SVoD landscape informed the decision to set up there, Goes says, noting the global commissioning landscape is also thawing after an icy 2024.

“We see some territories picking up quicker than others: the UK is particularly picking up after a very tough 18 months. We’re still waiting for that same uplift in other markets, but I understand it,” he explains.

“I’ve been on that side half my life, being a broadcaster for quite a few years. The first thing you look at [in tough economic times] is: what am I doing in content and marketing spend? We’re confronted with that reality with buyers.”

WBITVP’s bread and butter is unscripted production, despite Goes chiding Broadcast not to “underestimate us on the scripted side”. Its unscripted shows run the gamut of the genre, from legacy titles like First Dates, The Bachelor and its many spin-offs, Who Do You Think You Are? and The Repair Shop, to more recent titles like cookery competitions Harry Potter: Wizards Of Baking, 24 In 24: Last Chef Standing and Last Bite Hotel (all Food Network), Wall to Wall reality series Back To The Frontier, WBITVP Netherlands’ Reality Queens Of The Jungle and Twenty Twenty’s recently commissioned dating series First Dates: Beach Club.

The latter three are emblematic of the creative challenge WBITVP and producers the world over are trying to solve: making shows that can straddle the linear and streaming worlds.

Reality Queens has been a breakout hit since its rebirth on RTL Group-owned local SVoD Videoland in 2023 (it was a linear show on RTL 5 between 2011 to 2013), establishing itself as the Dutch platform’s most-streamed show ever.

WBD’s joint-venture Magnolia Network ordered Back To The Frontier last year as part of a slate of family-friendly unscripted content, specifically created for flagship streamer Max, with which the US basic cable channel has a content-sharing partnership.

Produced by the UK’s Wall to Wall and based on the label’s turn-of-the-millennium C4 series The 1900 House, the immersive, living-history format will take three 21st-century families back in time to live like people on the American prairie of the 1880s.

These kind of creative evolutions are valuable, Goes explains. “With First Dates: Beach Club, C4 reached out to us saying it had big ideas and plans for its digital platform – so could we devise a spin-off of the long-running dating show that is good for a streaming environment, a bit more marketable, a bit louder, a bit beachier, sexier and younger?” he says.

“Taking that well-respected, fixed-rig brand, Twenty Twenty has turned it into an arced version, which is a bit freer [for streaming].”

Lando Entertainment’s 24 In 24 is another example of a studio show that is “easier to adapt than maybe the best [linear] quiz show”, and the clear trailblazer is Reality Queens Of The Jungle.

“We have formats that are first and foremost developed for a streaming environment. Reality Queens is a bit closer to the ‘bikini reality’ formats [like Love Island], and reality is a genre that maybe lends itself better to streaming. They are easier to come up with or adapt than a gameshow.

“But more and more, you see how we are making sure we’re thinking about what are the important elements of a genre for SVoD.”

Striking a balance

Goes says this is not an overnight pivot for WBITVP, even after the wider WBD restructured to split its streaming and linear business at the end of last year, to shift the emphasis to streaming.

“We find it exciting that linear is still important in all markets and it’s still asking for good content,” he emphasises. “On top of that, local streamers or international streamers also have content opportunities, wishes and needs. Yes, we are having more discussions [about creating] stickier, easier-toachieve genres for streaming, but it’s all a matter of discussion and development over time.

“To us, creativity is free: you can focus it, but you shouldn’t limit it too quickly because that would be detrimental. Sorry, now I’m going to be Dutch: it would be plain stupid.”

There is a temptation to take this local expertise template to WBD’s Max, now that it has launched in myriad markets across Europe, Latin America and South-East Asia – 25 countries in Europe and 65 countries and territories worldwide – with the UK to follow in 2026.

A WBITVP exec Broadcast spoke to argues that Max “can’t be our only business, it’s not big enough”. Goes shares this sentiment, not wanting to limit his labels to an in-house streamer, despite some of the US majors setting up owned-and-operated platforms to be serviced by their own producers.

“We have to be ready for whoever walks through the door, whatever that party is looking for, and any client,” he says, adding that he and his team are not solely sitting in meetings about feeding Max.

“They should also take the best creativity from the market – if it’s us, thumbs up. But I would say the same for Videoland in Holland – if they’re looking for something and they end up with us, great, but forced shopping, sticking things down throats, forget it. It doesn’t work like that.”

“I want to have an unencumbered sandpit to play in, to develop our ideas and to produce”

So Casey Bloys is not calling up asking for each Max territory’s adaptation of Reality Queens?

No, he says, but: “Casey and I do talk and, funnily enough, we have [discussed shows such as] Wall to Wall’s Back To The Frontier – that’s the way it should be happening, organically.

“Anyone who has a senior position in commissioning will know the power of Reality Queens. Are we only talking to HBO? Absolutely not.

“I want to have an unencumbered sandpit to play in, develop our ideas and to produce.”