ITV Studios Finland brings in ex-MTV exec Eevamaria Vassinen to head formats

Former MTV executive Eevamaria Vassinen has joined ITV Studios Finland as head of formats, effective from this week.

Eevamaria Vassinen

In her new role, Vassinen will focus on strengthening ITV’s formats business and supporting sales and channel relationships.

Her remit includes tracking the international market and ITV’s own catalogue as well as identifying, developing and localising ideas with potential for the Finnish market and taking them to broadcasters.

Pete Paavolainen, MD of ITV Studios Finland, said: “ITV’s catalogue and international network contain a huge amount of exciting content. With Eevamaria on board, we can look even more closely at what could work in Finland and what needs to happen to an idea before it is taken forward. Eevamaria brings long experience from different parts of the television industry, and that gives us a valuable perspective in our formats work.”

Vassinen has over 20 years of experience in content, development and production leadership. She previously spent more than five years as commissions and content development manager at Finnish broadcaster MTV.

More recently she was CEO of POdzilla Social, a Helsinki-based content and media agency founded in 2024, and exec producer at Asiastudio, a Finnish journalistic video podcast and current affairs media platform.

“What I find most interesting in format work is that moment when you need to assess whether an intriguing idea can really work in the Finnish market. Not everything should be pitched to everyone. The key is to understand who the idea could work for, why now and what needs to be done to it before it is taken forward,” says Vassinen.