Videoage International December 2017

18 December 2017 V I D E O A G E Even though McGrath lamented that VideoAge ’s questions were interfering with his enjoyment of retirement, he joyfully provided answers. “In the late ’70s, I set my sights on getting more closely involved in ‘the business of the business.’ I came from a family that was active in the steamship business around the world and I had studied International Business. I wanted to look for opportunities on the international side and got the chance [at Viacom] reporting to Larry Gershman, and got my first chance to attend MIP-TV in 1978.” Added Gershman: “In 1978, my number two left Viacom and Brian moved over. He felt too limited in what he had been doing.” The interesting aspect is that, as he explained in his 2015 book A Kid From Brooklyn , Gershman himself joined Viacom in 1976 from the TV station ad sales side of the business, and he too didn’t “know a lot about international [program] sales.” McGrath continued: “In the early 1980s, Columbia Pictures was coming out of a state of turmoil. The challenges surrounding Indecent Exposure had subsided and Fay Vincent had been hired as CEO.” Indecent Exposure: A True Story of Hollywood and Wall Street was a 1982 book written by David McClintick that traced the power struggles that began at Columbia Pictures in 1977 following the discovery of a check forged by the studio head at the time, David Begelman. “The decision had been made to centralize all [of Columbia’s] international business activities in New York,” said McGrath. “Fred Gilson had succeeded Norman Horowitz as head of International Television and [the L.A.-based Gilson] had decided not to move to New York. Fred recommended me for the position and [in 1981] I was hired and reported to Pat Williamson, who was President of Columbia Pictures International.” In 1982, Columbia Pictures was bought by The Coca-Cola Company for $750 million. Said McGrath: “I was asked in 1987 to move to Los Angeles as Executive Vice President of Coca-Cola Television reporting to Frank Biondi in New York. My responsibility was to put the pieces together, which included Columbia Pictures Television, Embassy Television, Merv Griffin and Columbia Telecommunications.” Of that period, Nick Bingham, who was hired by McGrath from Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment in 1985, recalled when “Brian asked me to arrange a private audience with Pope John Paul II for himself and Fay Vincent, then-chairman of Columbia Pictures. I scratched my head before picking up the phone to Paolo Ferrari [our man in Italy] at the time, who was able to set it up and get me off a potential tricky moment.” Bingham also mentioned that back then, “there was an unwritten understanding that the majors would kind of take turns doing big annual deals in the various territories in lesser markets,” before adding that McGrath’s “management style was laid-back, but knowledgeable and effective.” Similarly, Michael Grindon, who was hired by McGrath in 1986 from the accounting division at HBO, remembered how he “was impressed with Brian’s management style. He would set the priorities and strategy and then let you get onwith your work. He was not one to hover over his team, but he would be available if you had questions. He was fun to work with and extremely witty.” In 1987, Bingham was appointed president of Columbia TriStar International Television and, in 1995 was promoted to president, International Sony Television Entertainment — a position taken over by Grindon when Bingham left in 1997. Also in 1987, McGrath became president and CEO of Entertainment Business, International at The Coca-Cola Company, reporting to Vincent. The events, however, did not unfold in such a schematic way. Indeed lots of whirlwind changes took place at Columbia Pictures between 1982 and 1988. After the Coca-Cola acquisition, Columbia launched TriStar Pictures as a joint venture with HBO and CBS. In 1985, Columbia acquired Norman Lear and Jerry Perenchio’s Embassy Communications for $485 million, but it immediately sold the Embassy theatrical division to Dino de Laurentiis, who later folded Embassy PicturesintoDinodeLaurentiisProductions,which eventually became De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, and which went bankrupt in 1989. In 1986, Coca-Cola bought Merv Griffin Enterprises for $250 million. The following year, it spun off Columbia, which was sold to TriStar, with the latter becoming Columbia Pictures Entertainment. In 1987, Coca-Cola also sold Embassy Home Entertainment to Nelson Entertainment. From 1971 until the end of 1987, Columbia’s international distribution operations were a joint venture with Warner Bros. But Warner pulled out of the venture in 1988 to join up with Walt Disney Pictures. Columbia was also involved in Spanish- language television with WNJU-TV in New Jersey. When it was sold in 1986, the new owner used it to form the Telemundo network. While at Columbia, McGrath became involved with what we now call “windowing.” In a piece for VideoAge ’s April 1985 Issue, he wrote: “The video revolution led virtually all major distributors to adopt a sequential-release pattern that offers product first to theaters, second to home video, third to pay-television and finally to television. The sequential-release pattern is a reflection of what appropriately might be called the ‘selective consumer-driven commercialization’ of television.” Finally, the Columbia Pictures rollercoaster ride ended when the group was sold to Japanese electronics giant Sony for $3.4 billion in 1989. However, by then, McGrath had already taken a breather, having established his own consulting firm, which one year later took him back into the banking business as the head of Oppenheimer Entertainment and Leisure Time Investment activities. Unbeknownst to him, in 1991, McGrath embarked upon yet another rollercoaster ride when he joined sports marketing company ISL Marketing AG in Lucerne as president and CEO. ISL (International Sports, Culture and Leisure Marketing was the complete moniker) was launched in 1983 by Germany’s Horst Dassler (son of Adi Dassler, founder of Adidas). Very quickly, ISL became involved with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with whom it created The Olympic Program as the IOC agent. In 1993, McGrath relocated to the U.S. as Chairman and CEO of ISL Holding (USA), which included managing the company’s marketing for the 1994 World Cup. “After three years in Europe, I wanted to go back to my family in the U.S.,” he explained, “and that expedient was a sort of transition.” Just one year after McGrath left in 1994, ISL lost the rights to the Olympic Games, which was compounded by a loss of market shares, and began purchasing television rights on a large scale. This led to a cash flow crisis that ultimately felled the company, leaving a debt of U.S.$300 million. Seven years after ISL collapsed in 2001, and following a four-year investigation by Swiss prosecutors, six former ISL executives — Daniel Beauvois, Christoph Malms, Hans-Jürg Schmid, Heinz Schurtenberger, Hans-Peter Weber and the former chairman Jean-Marie Weber — were accused of a series of charges, including fraud, embezzlement and the falsification of documents. After the aforementioned TRA’s short-lived challenge, McGrath relocated fromNew York City to Los Angeles in 1995, going back to banking as an independent consultant to the entertainment and sports industries, which lasted just a year, since, in 1996, he joined Universal Studios as svp of International Business Development. The following year he became president, International Recreation, with responsibility over Universal Studios Japan and theme parks in Spain and China. He also was the company’s liaison with Matsushita, since the Japanese group retained 20 percent of Universal Studios. Matsushita acquired MCA/Universal in 1990 for $6.6 billion and in 1995 sold an 80 percent stake to Canadian drink distributor Seagram for $5.7 billion. Subsequently, Matsushita sold its stake in Universal Studios in 2006 for $1.17 billion. In 2000, France’s Vivendi entered a $34 billion all-share deal to absorb Seagram. In Hollywood, the new company was renamed Vivendi Universal and headed by Vivendi’s Jean-Marie Messier with Seagram’s boss Edgar Bronfman as vice chairman. The deal with Vivendi turned out to be a disaster for Bronfman. Messier drove Vivendi to the brink of insolvency with a string of deals that left the company with $19 billion in debt. Bronfman (who had five seats on Vivendi’s 20-member board) led a boardroom crusade to oust Messier, and in July 2002 he won. In 2004, GE (which owned NBC) took over Vivendi Universal and renamed it NBCUniversal, which in 2009 was acquired by its current owner, Comcast. In 1999, McGrath left Universal Studios to establishHaloEnterprises, once again focusing on entertainment and leisure-related investments. He retired in 2000 at the young age of 58 after a 30-year career in the TV distribution industry. Int’ l TV Distribut ion Hal l of Fame (Continued from Page 16) McGrath at his Viacom office in the early ’70s