Borde leaves WarnerMedia for Mediawan

Paris-based independent media group Mediawan has hired French kids’ TV veteran Julien Borde to oversee content at subsidiary ON Kids & Family.

Julien Borde

Borde joins ON Kids & Family as executive VP, head of television and chief content officer from WarnerMedia, where he has worked since 2018.

At the US media giant, Borde was head of kids and general entertainment channels for France, French-speaking territories and Africa.

Prior to that, former Canal J and Disney Channel France exec Borde was MD for digital services programming at France Télévisions, having joined the pubcaster in 2005 as head of children’s programming at France 3.

At ON Kids & Family, Borde will work with chairman Aton Soumache on overall strategy across all media formats, including creating new content, opening labels, making acquisitions and setting up a digital subsidiary.

Borde said: “In my previous positions, I have enjoyed the passion and professionalism that Aton Soumache brings to the production of premium kids’ and family content. So it is a great honour now to become part of the team at Europe’s leading producer of TV and film animation, with a mission to imagine and produce new content, explore new creative opportunities and help to grow ON Kids & Family in the ambitious and stimulating framework of Mediawan.”

Soumache added: “For many years now, I have been able to appreciate Julien Borde’s many skills, his intimate knowledge of our industry and his love of animation and content for all the family. His arrival at ON is a response to the demands of Mediawan’s strategic growth priority.

“His acute all-round vision and his understanding of new technologies will be a key asset in pursuing the group’s ambitions in the major changes that await us.”

Following a strategic merger, ON Kids & Family joined the Mediawan Group in June 2018. Now home to 30 production labels, Mediawan was set up in late 2015 by Pierre-Antoine Capton, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse.

Co-founded by Soumache, Dimitri Rassam and Thierry Pasquet, ON Kids & Family has almost 500 employees across Paris, Montreal, LA, Hyderabad and Luxembourg. Its productions include The Little Prince, Miraculous, Le Petit Nicolas and Robin Hood, as well as Playmobil: The Movie.

In 2019, On Kids & Family partnered with artist Joann Sfar to create The Magical Society. The first production from this partnership is animated movie Petit Vampire, which is due to be released in France on October 21.