Eric van Stade Out at SBS Broadcasting After Talpa Takeover

COLOGNE, Germany - Eric van Stade has stepped down as CEO of Dutch TV group SBS Broadcasting in the wake of the company’s takeover by Talpa Media, the company of The Voice creator John de Mol, and Finnish publishing house Sanoma. SBS said van Stade left over a “difference of opinion as to how the company should move forward,” suggesting he got the boot.

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Sanoma and Talpa have appointed Georgette Schlick the new CEO of SBS, which owns Dutch commercial channels Veronica, Net 5 and SBS6. Schlick, a media consultant and former CEO of multimedia firm DutchView is the first woman to run a Dutch broadcasting company.

Talpa and Sanoma bought SBS from German group ProSiebenSat.1 earlier this year. The deal gives de Mol an even greater hold over the Dutch TV market. His Talpa company already holds a 26.3 per cent stake in RTL Group’s TV holdings in the Netherlands.

So far, de Mol has not fully laid out his strategy for SBS except to say the broadcaster will be given a new look and taken in a new direction. Appointing Schlick as CEO is apparently the first step towards that.