Gerhard Zeiler

Zeiler has worked in television for 23 years – eight in the public service broadcasting sector; the remainder in commercial television.

He is convinced that advertisers believe in the effectiveness of television – "TV is bigger than ever" – and believes "Television will remain the mass medium – the only medium capable of assembling truly mass audiences".

In January 2011, Zeiler will become the first non-American to receive NATPE's Brandon Tartikoff legacy award. Named after arguably one of television's greatest programmers, the award was created to recognise television professionals who exhibit extraordinary passion, leadership, independence and vision in the process of creating television programming.

In August 2010, Zeiler's contract was renewed until the end of 2015.

Zeiler is often outspoken in his views on the value of television as a medium, despite often challenging evidence to the contrary. In a 2010 interview with Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad, Zeiler commented on the recovery of the television advertising market in 2010. "In Western Europe, our channels are now performing at the same level as in 2008… Other media, such as the publishing sector, have not bounced back anything like as strongly".

Zeiler has long been a strong supporter of British television. Speaking at the 2009 worldview address in Edinburgh, he said European television makers had a huge amount to learn from the UK.

He is one of the few non-British recipients of the Royal Television Society (RTS) fellowship, and was chair of the 2008 RTS international conference 'Opportunity Knocks'.

Zeiler has been a member of the executive board of Bertelsmann AG since October 2005. He is also a member of the supervisory boards of Groupe M6 in France and RTL Television in Germany, and vice chairman of the board of the Greek Alpha Media Group.

In 2004, Zeiler was voted media personality of the year at the Mipcom audiovisual content trade show in Cannes. The award came at a time when RTL Group continued to set new records, despite the crisis evident in the media sector.

In March 2003 Zeiler became CEO of RTL Group. In 2005, he passed the management of RTL Television to Anke Schäferkordt, so that he could focus solely on the company's international entertainment network.

From 2002 to 2004, Zeiler was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, which holds a majority in Bertelsmann.

In November 1998, Zeiler joined RTL Group, being appointed CEO of RTL Television in Cologne. He succeeded Helmut Thoma. The role gave him responsibility for the German television channels RTL Television, Vox, RTL II, Super RTL, and N-TV.

In 1991, he moved to Munich when he was appointed CEO of German commercial TV channel, Tele 5. In 1992 he became CEO of RTL II. Two years later, in 1994, Zeiler returned to Vienna when he was appointed CEO of ORF.

In 1986, Zeiler became secretary general of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) in Vienna. Despite being only 24, Zeiler had already realised that "television is part of my life".

After graduating, Zeiler began his early career working as a scientific assistant at the Austrian Institute for Occupational Research. After three years at the institute, his career took a change of direction when he began working as a freelance journalist. In 1979 he was appointed press spokesman for the then Austrian minister for education and the arts, Dr Fred Sinowatz. He followed Dr Sinowatz to the federal chancellor's office in 1983, going on to work for federal chancellor Dr Franz Vranitzky.

Gerhard Zeiler (born 20 July 1955) is an Austrian businessman who is the current president of Turner International (encompassing TBS Europe, TBS Asia Pacific, and TBS Latin America), part of WarnerMedia. Before taking up the role at Turner, Mr Zeiler was chief executive officer of the German media company RTL Group and a member of the executive board of Bertelsmann, the media conglomerate that owns the RTL Group.