President

Cécile Frot-Coutaz

President of the Association of Commercial Television and Video On Demand Services in Europe

Cécile Frot-Coutaz was elected ACT President at the ACT General Assembly on 22 June 2023. She replaces Guillaume de Posch, ACT President 2017-2023.

Cécile Frot-Coutaz is the Chief Executive Officer of Sky Studios, Sky’s scripted original programming arm across Europe. In addition to this Cécile has responsibility for Sky Studios’ factual output as well as its global portfolio of production companies which includes Blast! Films, Jupiter Entertainment, True North and Love Productions, creator of the Great British Bake Off. She also oversees Sky Studios Elstree, Sky’s new, state-of-the-art film and TV studios in the UK, and has responsibility for Sky News Group, including Sky News and TG24.

She started her career in strategy consulting at Mercer Management Consulting, in London, where she stayed for four years. In 1994, after obtaining her MBA, she joined the Pearson group headquarters in London. She was subsequently named Corporate Strategy Executive for Pearson TV, where she spearheaded the acquisition and integration of All American Fremantle into the Pearson Television group. 

In 2001, she relocated to Burbank as the US commercial lead for the renamed FremantleMedia Group and was responsible for delivering some of the production company’s biggest shows including American Idol and America’s Got Talent. She held several executive roles and positions within the group, eventually ending as Chief Executive Officer in 2012. There she led a restructuring of the business and the strategy maintaining Fremantle’s position as one of the world’s leading content producers, while expanding its capability to enable it to compete in the world of high end drama, with shows like Deutschland 83, American Gods and The Young Pope. She joined YouTube in October 2018 as Head of EMEA, responsible for all aspects of the business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including forging partnerships with and supporting YouTube’s growing community of content creators. She is a graduate of ESSEC (B.A., 1988) and of INSEAD (M.B.A., 1994).