Annick Bongers (54) will soon retire after ten years as program director at Play Media, the group above the Play television channels. She announced this on Wednesday. Bongers is taking six months to recuperate and does not yet have a new job. Three men will replace her.
Bongers started her career in 1995 with reporter Paul Jambers. In 1997 she became one of the first employees of production house Woestijnvis. After the takeover of SBS Belgium (VT4 and VijfTV) by Woestijnvis, she became network manager in 2014 and program director two years later.
During those ten years, Bongers breathed new life into the ratings cannon ‘De Mol’, she took the risk to launch a talk show with Gert Verhulst and James Cooke on a boat and she continuously looked for the right positioning for the Play channels in a competitive market, which had to deal with the rise of streaming services and viewers who watch TV less and less linearly.
Bongers will remain program director until the elections in June and will then take the time to think about what challenge she wants to take on, within or outside Play Media. Three men will replace her: Martijn Bal will be in charge of all Play content, Ken Ceulemans will be in charge of the program strategy and Kristof Demasure will be responsible for the current strategy and deontology.
