Former ITV Director William van Rest launches JEM Media Ventures

Former ITV Director William van Rest 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 William 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 will 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 optimize their IP; finding IP for businesses to licence into their operations, leveraging existing fandom and audiences to develop new commercial products; and 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 licence global IP into a fast-growing immersive experience business; and more.

At ITV Studios Global Entertainment, William 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 which generated over £20 million profit in his first year.

“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 has never been more vital to explore and properly maximize the long tail value of what you already have – and that is 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,”  Will van Rest said.

“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 licence in and optimize IP,”  he added.