Former ITV director launches JEM Media Ventures
January 29, 2024
Former ITV director, William van Rest, has announced the launch of JEM Media Ventures, a new company designed to help businesses, brands and talent create ancillary income streams with IP, assets and/or unused inventory.
Building on van Rest’s extensive commercial experience, which has seen him generate additional revenues from IP, manage high-profile content brands, and establish profitable strategic partnerships for more than 25 years, JEM Media Ventures aims to provide a flexible and creative one-stop for businesses and individuals looking for new ways to grow.
Specifically, the new business will focus on:
· Helping current rights holders such as producers and distributors to commercially optimise their IP
· Finding IP for businesses to license into their operations, leveraging existing fandom and audiences to develop new commercial products
· Establishing partnerships with advertisers and brands, integrating them into screen-based content, exhibitions, and experiential
While gearing up for its formal launch, JEM Media Ventures has already:
· Supported fund-raising and identified new partnership opportunities for an award-winning VR film and technology production company
· Worked with a major distributor to secure a deal for a leading global cookery TV format to launch a flagship restaurant
· Helped a tech commerce start up win a major media business tender process for a multi-year contract
· Secured deals to license global IP into a fast-growing immersive experience business
· Created a game changing partnership for a leisure business rolling out in UK
· Assisted a leading talent agency in finding commercial deals for a global fashion/reality/music icon, a UK pop group and a leading children’s author
· Helped a new gambling business and a games studio identify and secure IPs to licence for their businesses
The business is also currently working on a full licensing programme for a new feature film that’s currently in development with A-list Hollywood talent attached.
At ITV Studios Global Entertainment, van Rest was most recently Director of Games, Live & Merchandising, but he had held several senior commercial director roles during his 17-year tenure, as well as spending interim periods as Managing Director of itv.com and Editorial Director of ITV’s digital content studio. He was originally hired by ITV as a Controller to oversee the late night ITV1 schedule, alongside a dedicated digital channel and games website.
His other successes at ITV include commercialising Love Island (over 1 million personalised water bottles sold, over 25 million installs of the show’s mobile game), welcoming over 1 million visitors to ITV’s production sets (Coronation Street, Emmerdale), selling over 600K tickets to live tours and events such as The Big Reunion and Ant & Dec’s Takeaway on Tour, creating a network of 17 Ninja Warrior Adventure Parks around the UK with over 3 million visitors to date, and achieving 20x views and 50x revenue growth over the five-year period he led ITV’s UK YouTube channels.
Prior to ITV, he co-founded The Optimistic Network which, through its channel Nation 277, was a feeder network of programming ideas and funding models to larger broadcasters. Before that he was Head of Enhanced TV at BSkyB, leading red button opportunities across the various Sky channels, and creating the business case for the Sky Vegas TV channel. He also worked at Fremantle Media and its predecessor, Pearson Television.
Van Rest commented: “Typically, rights owners spend most of their energies getting their shows on air or projects off the ground and then move on to the next idea. But with today’s budgetary and commissioning challenges it’s never been more vital to explore and properly maximise the long tail value of what you already have – and that’s where JEM Media Ventures comes in. We understand the power of both content and personal brands and know how to extend and manage them off-air in a wealth of innovative ways that drive meaningful interactions and new levels of engagement – as well as important new revenue channels. There are also a wealth of non-media brands and companies out there looking to tap into the potency of content fandom and audience loyalty. We are well placed to work with them too, driving mutually beneficial new partnerships. Our strategic and creative thinking, combined with an extensive network and experience in numerous sectors, allows us to support IP holders of all sizes and types, and at all stages of a brand’s journey, in addition to helping businesses license in and optimise IP.”