Scott Koondel, the executive vice president and chief corporate content licensing officer of CBS and an S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumnus, led a conversation last week at Newhouse. He spoke about corporate licensing and the challenges of the new media landscape, among other topics.

After 25 years at CBS and Paramount, Koondel recently announced his departure from the corporate sphere to lead his own production-distribution venture in partnership with CBS, which is expected to come into effect later this year.

The Daily Orange sat down with Koondel to discuss what this transition means for the company and how it will affect his career trajectory.

The Daily Orange: Do you consider your move as “stepping down” or lateral?

Scott Koondel: It’s not going down, that’s for sure. It’s about doing something on my own that I’ll own.

When I looked at the last few years with CBS, starting CBS All Access, and looked at what Showtime has done with their over-the-top service and looked at how much business I was doing with Netflix and Amazon, I saw a dramatic shift in original programming. So my division started doing original programming.

I won’t be limited as I was with CBS and, for me, it’s just all about being an entrepreneur at this stage of my life and sort of getting out of the corporate world and dealing with all of the change. Having the independence right now is something I was seeking, and I was fortunate enough that they gave me this opportunity to do that and do it there and still be associated with the people.

The D.O.: How were you able to maintain such a high-level position for nearly three decades?

S.K.: Well, I went to school here at Syracuse, and it kind of gave me a really good jump-start because I was very involved in production. I had a little production company here, and we did weddings and bar mitzvahs and commercials. I think we shot a commercial for J Michael Shoes on Marshall Street, and we did used car commercials.

When I got out of school, I felt like I was very well prepared for after-college life because I was sort of in my career mode already. When I got out of school, I carried that competitive attitude and nature on when I got into the TV industry in New York.

I, in a sense, was always like an in-house entrepreneur. I was trying to find new ways to reinvent the business and sell content and how we licensed it, how we monetized it and how to maximize all the revenue areas that come from making really, really great content.

(CBS) entered the digital space in 2011, and we put stuff on Hulu and Netflix and Amazon. What happened then was I came to realize that people were just stealing our content off The CW … Everyone was pirating those shows, and my CEO called me into his office one day and said, “You know, we’re really not making a lot of money from this joint venture, probably losing money, what can we do to change that?”

We went out and we got over a billion dollars in the first deal that we did, and now, the renewal of it which is now 100 percent on Netflix, is probably the richest content licensing deal in the history of television outside of sports. People don’t realize that for a little network called The CW, that content is so valuable to younger people who want to watch things on their iPads and iPhones and their computers.

The D.O.: How will your position be different for the next person who takes it? How will your future position differ from your current position?

S.K.: I’m still in my current job so like, I’ll be here for a few more weeks. I’m starting this company, and I haven’t even registered the name yet of it or have business cards. The big difference is going to be not having that quarterly pressure of a publicly traded company that I’ve done and been responsible for on the content side, sales side for many, many years. The burden will be lifted, and when I do a sale now, the revenues will go into my own company. It also is going to give me the opportunity to be even closer to the content and the creative processes.

The D.O.: What do you think of companies like Disney privatizing their content and making plans to launch their own streaming platform?

S.K.: I think that they have to take more control of their destiny. Part of what I did, we did, at CBS was create these direct-to-consumer platforms way before anyone else, and we kind of backdoored our way in. We did ours years ago, and we also started with a huge base because our network is No.1. Showtime’s OTT (over-the-top) services also hit at the right time because we had some very big shows like Homeland and Ray Donovan that were able to jump-start the service at a time where HBO wasn’t doing as well as it has in the past.

The D.O.: What has changed the most at CBS since Les Moonves stepped down?

S.K.: What’s changed most is that he’s not there. I think there’s definitely much more awareness to how people treat one another. It’s definitely put things front and center. For me, what’s interesting is that I was here (Syracuse University) a little over a year ago, and it was two weeks after the Harvey Weinstein thing blew up and it was really the students that opened up my eyes to what was going on, ‘cause I didn’t even talk about the Me Too era when I was here. But every question after in the Q&A was around the culture of Hollywood, and it really opened up my eyes. I think what’s just going to change is that there is a leadership change. We have a really terrific new board.

That’s really the biggest change: What will we look like in a year? I think there’s a lot of people wondering, will we be bought by another company? Will we merge with another Viacom? All of that ultimately will be good for the company … it will be good for people who produce content. It will be good for the shareholders. But it’s just this period of transition and change. That’s really the difference right now.

The D.O.: What’s your favorite memory from your time at SU?

S.K.: I have so many great memories that involved friends and involved the industry and content and watching content and talking about it and being excited for the future. We knew we were going to miss college, but we were all thriving and excited to leave and work in whatever it is that we were going to do. When I come back here now, I’m happy and I’m sad because I just know that feeling that you have when you’re here and you’re dreaming about what the future’s going to be like. My father always said, ‘The best part of getting something is the waiting.” I never really understood it. But I understand it more now that I’m an adult. I dreamed when I was at Newhouse of being in the job I have right now and being successful and being able to travel and having the resources and the things that I want. You can’t forget the journey. It’s the journey that’s the fun part.

Published on November 12, 2018 at 12:13 am

Contact Rori: rhsachs@syr.edu