Three questions for Contribution Sales Director Claude STOFFEL, who has been working for ATEME Company since September 2006.

Claude Stoffel has over 25 year of experience in the broadcast industry. He started his career with various television production positions for French television stations and production companies ( TF1, FR3 , SFP ). Then he worked for Tektronix and Ampex before joining EBU as the Head of Marketing for Eurovision operation.
He joined ATEME in 2006 as Sales Director for EMEA and acts also as Contribution business Director on a worldwide basis.

Q: What do you like the most about your job?

I joined ATEME in September 2006 in order to initiate the migration of the company from technology licensing business model to a broadcast and Telco products and system business model. In the past years we have built complete portfolio of solutions covering the IPTV/DVB head-and, multi-screen delivery and broadcast contribution. What I really like is to be part of a mid-size company where decisions are taken very quickly. ATEME owns all its technology, have a clear strategy and real story to tell. This differentiates us from other vendors.

Q: What is the biggest challenge in your position?

The most difficult part of the job is to convince a customer to trust ATEME as a reliable partner for its present and future needs. We are continuously building our brand but our competitors are well established in the market with the Mpeg2 infrastructure already in place since many years.
We need to continuously bring innovation to the industry, jump into the new markets such as OTT and grow in mature markets like contribution and DVB-S and DVB-T market.

Q: What advice do you give to new sales people?

They have to learn more about the industry, this is a small world and there is a history which drives the business. Customers like to talk to people using the same language and appreciate those who are able to understand their needs and main challenges.
Within my 25 years of experience in the industry there has been always something new coming up; starting from the re-launch of business after the analogue broadcasting came cable distribution and the satellite DTH, followed by digitization and iptv in 2005. Now we are talking about non-linear TV with OTT delivery, 3D and 4K. There is a long future for this industry which lies ahead of us.

Posted by Monika Ceskova Fourneaux, for comments m.ceskova[at]ateme.com