The Knowledge is a series of interviews with leading screen industry figures, conducted by experienced film journalist Andrew Urban and published via the CSB blog.
William Weil - biography
William S. Weil is Chief Operating Officer of National Geographic Entertainment. Working closely with unit presidents, Weil leads strategy and operations, including distribution, marketing, and external partnerships and co-productions, for National Geographic’s feature film, kids entertainment and giant screen film business units. In addition, Weil oversees the Society’s home entertainment business in North America, including the new gaming initiative and the integrated marketing and sponsorship group.
Weil joined National Geographic in 2002 and was most recently Executive VP of Strategy, Marketing and Entertainment Group. Prior to joining National Geographic, Weil was senior vice president of AG Interactive, a leading mobile content and electronic greetings company. Previously, Weil spent five years at Nickelodeon Networks, where he ran the strategy and business development group as its vice president. Weil also held brand management positions at Walt Disney Home Entertainment. He started his career as a financial analyst in the media group at Lazard Fréres & Co. Weil is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.
Audio download
Chapter 1 - Crossing platforms and territories - 14 minutes
- Entertainment group as part of NatGeo – features, children’s, music
- Love to work with people on their passion projects
- Looking for the biggest possible audience
- Australians welcome – collaboration has many benefits
- Every deal is different - we’re creator-friendly
- Entertainment unit is built on the portfolio model - historically that means across any 15 films the return will be about 10%
- Multi-platform projects are preferred
- Strategy is: mission / brand / profit
- Challenging to stay across different content streams
Video downloads
Chapter 2 - Collaboration and distribution - 8 minutes
- Most projects come from outside; most are co-productions
- Provide both cash and kind in projects, but not limitless cash
- Also act as a distributor, for our own and others’ films
- Digital distribution is still less than 10% of the total – but important
Video downloads
