Paris – Reed MIDEM announced that Dana Walden and Gary Newman, Chairmen and CEOs of Fox Television Group, have been named as MIPCOM 2015 Personalities of the Year – the first time that two industry leaders have jointly received the award since its creation in 1989.
Walden and Newman will be honoured at a gala dinner for international entertainment executives to be held at the InterContinental Carlton Cannes on 7 October.
Launched in 1989 to recognise outstanding career achievements in television, the MIPCOM Personality of the Year award has paid tribute to 21 iconic names including Ted Turner, Sumner Redstone, Pierre Lescure, Gerhard Zeiler, Anne Sweeney, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Simon Cowell.
Newman and Walden were named Presidents of 20th Century Fox Television in 1999, and in the 15 years since, have grown the company into a powerhouse content provider which has dominated the awards races, reimagined the boundaries of television storytelling and broken new business models which have been adopted the industry over.
In July 2014, the two were named Chairmen and CEOs of the Fox Television Group, which added the Fox network to their portfolio. In the short time since they’ve taken the reins, the network has launched the hit drama Gotham, the groundbreaking comedy The Last Man On Earth, and the No. 1 show on broadcast, Empire, a phenomenon produced by TCFTV which grew its ratings each week and became the highest-rated broadcast drama in seven years.
At the studio, Walden and Newman delivered hit after hit, from Modern Family – which made history with its fifth consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, to global sensation 24, to Homeland – which took home the Golden Globe and multiple Emmys for best drama. They recently created the industry’s largest cable production unit in Fox 21 Television Studios, which in addition to Homeland, produces 19 series including the critically-acclaimed The Americans and the eagerly-anticipated American Crime Story: The People V O.J. Simpson. The studio’s content now reaches more than a billion people every day in as many as 180 countries, across six continents, in 30 different languages.
“Dana Walden and Gary Newman form an inspirational leadership team in the entertainment sector, having propelled Fox to global success through the quality of its creative programming, built largely on their unique relationships with top talent. In recognition of their outstanding parallel careers and achievements, we are delighted to honour them as MIPCOM 2015 Personalities of the Year,” said Paul Zilk, CEO of Reed MIDEM, organiser of MIPCOM.
Full List of MIPCOM Personalities of the Year with job titles at the time of the award:
1989: André Rousselet, Chairman & CEO, CANAL+
1990: Ted Turner, CEO, TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM INC
1991: Silvio Berlusconi, CEO, FININVEST
1992: Roberto Marinho, President, GLOBO COMMUNICATIONS
1993: Gaston Thorn, President, CLT MULTIMEDIA
1994: Sumner Redstone, Chairman of the Board, VIACOM
1995: Pierre Grimblat, Chairman, HAMSTER PRODUCTIONS
1996: Léo Kirch, Founder & CEO, KIRCH GROUP
1997: John Hendricks, Chairman & CEO, DISCOVERY
1998: Pierre Lescure, Chairman & CEO, CANAL+
2001: Tom Freston, Chairman & CEO, MTV NETWORKS
2003: Peter Chernin, President & Chief Operating Officer, NEWS CORPORATION
2004: Gerhard Zeiler, CEO, RTL GROUP
2005: Gustavo Cisneros, Chairman & CEO, CISNEROS GROUP OF COMPANIES
2006: Richard Parsons, Chairman & CEO, TIME WARNER
2007: Leslie Moonves, President & CEO, CBS CORPORATION
2010: John Feltheimer, Chairman, LIONSGATE
2011: Anne Sweeney, Co-Chairman DISNEY MEDIA NETWORKS & President DISNEY/ABC GROUP
2012: Emilio Azcarraga Jean, President, GRUPO TELEVISA
2013: Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO, DREAMWORKS ANIMATION
2014: Simon Cowell, Founder, SYCO ENTERTAINMENT
