As a freshman watching Hogan’s Heroes in his dorm room at Deerfield, Mr. Perrette had no idea that one day he’d be at the helm of a $4 billion international entertainment behemoth or leading a team of 4000 talented individuals.
JB PERRETTE
CEO
the common room
’89
FILLING THE RECTANGLE “There’s a reason it’s called show business,” JB Perrette ’89 says. “I’m a businessperson, but I do have a great appreciation for the creative. It helps to love the product.” And although he isn’t directly connected to the production side of things, Mr. Perrette certainly knows how to find greatness in the most unlikely places. More important perhaps, is that he understands what it takes to cultivate that content and market it as a premium, high demand product to audiences across the globe. He did it for more than a decade climbing the ladder at NBC, and now he’s doing it as president of Discovery Networks International. “I love the fact that I personally have an opinion on this,” Mr. Perrette admits. “It wouldn’t be as fun if you couldn’t enjoy the fruits of your labor. I love being a consumer and I love the fact that this is an industry that’s driven by the digital transformation—a revolution that happens once every hundred years or so. I get to be in the drivers seat, and I get to try and come out stronger.” Mr. Perrette was officially named president of Discovery Networks International on January 15. As a freshman watching Hogan’s Heroes in his dorm room at Deerfield, Mr. Perrette had no idea that one day he’d be at the helm of a $4 billion international entertainment behemoth or leading a team of 4000 talented individuals. “Mike Eisner was the CEO of Disney at the time,” he says. “Disney was always a brand where I thought, ‘Wow, what a fun industry!
By Joseph Delaney
What fun it would be to work there.’ But it was passive— I never put it all together.” It wasn’t until he joined NBC/ Universal in 2000 that those thoughts started to become a reality. Since joining DNI as vice president of Digital Media in 2011, Mr. Perrette has made major contributions to Discovery, especially in acquisition of developing digital platforms across the web. These accomplishments include acquiring Internet television network Revision3, Defranco Creative, Lumosity, and many more. Mr. Perrette’s team was also responsible for launching popular online networks like Animalist and TestTube as well as live services including Animal Planet L!ve and Skywire Live. “TV has historically lived in a one dimensional frame,” he says. “The Internet is enabling a whole new level of multidimensionality through interaction. Every day entertainment is becoming less passive and more active.” When you’re talking about a company with over 2.5 billion subscribers across 220 nations, the sheer scale of creating personalized, specific entertainment for each and every viewer is pretty tough to comprehend. Luckily, Mr. Perrette couldn’t be more excited. “This is the new golden age of TV, you’ve never seen better quality shows,” he says. “One thing that’s for sure is that all these new platforms are providing great content. Otherwise (our screens) are just glowing rectangles. Without the stories and characters they’re nothing.” ••
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