With the ink still wet on a new agreement in Thailand, heralding the start of a hoped-for business transformation for Turner in Asia, Asia-Pacific president and MD Steve Marcopoto is paving the way for a new leader to drive the strategy forward, after announcing this morning that he was stepping down.

Nonetheless, the Turner veteran pledged to ramp up current momentum pending the appointment of a successor, steering through already initiated deals elsewhere before his contract expires in December.

“You’ll see further activities before the year is out,” Marcopoto vows, speaking in an interview with Media Business Asia. 

“A big part of what I want to do for the next five months, before I wrap up here, is drive very hard all the things that are in the pipeline to completion.”

Blueprint for growth

Last week, Turner revealed it was setting up a new JV to drive local growth in Thailand, the first significant move since implementing a major organizational overhaul that saw many regional roles cut.

Overall staffing levels were cut by around 50%, from approximately 1,000 people to about 500 today.

A greater localized focus and further diversification should follow, after international boss Gerhard Zeiler signed off on a blueprint to drive management, operational and strategic change in the months ahead.

Marcopoto has overseen the growth of solid businesses for Turner in markets such as Australia, Japan and Korea, as well as the makings of a solid business in India, albeit jolted by a high-profile failure in Hindi entertainment last year.

The India business is now profitable, built around leadership in kids entertainment.

In Southeast Asia and Greater China however, company successes have hinged mostly on Turner’s kids portfolio, especially with commercial decisions regarding flagship news channel CNN handled from global HQ.

At the same time, a regional entertainment business housed under TruTV has yet to scale into a prime-time opportunity.

That may change, with the launch of an aggressively windowed studio entertainment channel in the region, a goal shared by both Zeiler and Marcopoto.

Meanwhile, diversification and expansion in Southeast Asia in particular, unlocked with a strong local partner as in Thailand, is a priority and key for future relevance. Indonesia, the Philippines or Malaysia could be next.

Localizaton just the start

Local growth opportunities are on everyone’s radar however, and Turner faces plenty of competition from international rivals for the most lucrative deals.

“Localization is an obvious and almost imperative element,” Marcopoto says.

“There’s nothing really different that localization brings from one company to the next,” he adds. “What we’re driving now is differentiation."

In the meantime, Turner and HBO, both owned by Time Warner, are likely to remain separate businesses for the foreseeable future.

Closer ties, however, could realize potential synergies and business optimization.

The current scale and success of Fox International Channels dates back to a large-scale integration of its own, incorporating Star's Asian channel business outside India.

For Marcopoto meanwhile, a new Turner is taking shape.

“We’re at the implementation stage,” he says.

“We’re seeing some of the first fruits beginning to materialize in the types of activities we began last week. You will see more of that going forward.”