Chris Oliver-Taylor deals FremantleMedia card, hopes for change

Chris Oliver-Taylor talks motives, paradox and the eye of the historic storm to break out of his Matchbox box.
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Chris Oliver-Taylor watched by Alan Finney at the 2012 Open Channel Generation Next Drama and Comedy Conference.

For the last week, the leadership of FremantleMedia Australia, aka FMA, has been a watch-this-space piece of speculation across the sector. The new CEO will be Chris Oliver-Taylor, the current Managing Director of Matchbox Pictures.

How that affects the industry is really unknown. Oliver-Taylor is the tall, gangly, nimble minded political tactician, publically active but always considered. He claims to know little about the internal workings of FME at the moment. He won’t know for a while because he goes on the quaintly titled gardening leave, in which he is contractually unable to work for either company until later in the year.  What he does know is the sector and that he expects to do the job from Melbourne with a lot of flying. 

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David Tiley was the Editor of Screenhub from 2005 until he became Content Lead for Film in 2021 with a special interest in policy. He is a writer in screen media with a long career in educational programs, documentary, and government funding, with a side order in script editing. He values curiosity, humour and objectivity in support of Australian visions and the art of storytelling.