Born in November 1973, Olivier Abecassis is a graduate of the French National Institute of Telecommunications. He began his career in 1996 when he was involved in the launch of the French satellite broadcaster TPS. At the end of 1998 he joined TF1, becoming Director of New Technologies in 2004.
From 2006, he piloted all of the TF1 Group’s digital developments, launching the MYTF1 catch-up video site, now the industry leader in terms of video views; he was appointed CEO of e-TF1, the Group’s digital subsidiary, in 2010. He oversaw the 2006 acquisition of an equity stake in Overblog, and led its 2010 merger with Teads; he remained as a director of Teads until it was sold to Altice in 2017.
In 2016, Olivier Abecassis was appointed Vice President, Innovation and Digital of the TF1 Group, tasked with the digitalisation of the Group and with rolling out its digital strategy.
He launched the Group’s start-up incubator, which aims to anticipate trends in media use and monetisation, and secured a partnership with the Station F campus.
In 2017, Olivier Abecassis oversaw the creation of an international alliance between ProSiebenSat.1 (Germany), Mediaset (Italy) and the TF1 Group, with the latter taking an equity stake in Studio71 (the world’s no.3 multi-channel network). This also led to the creation of the EBX pan-European airtime sales agency.
At the end of 2017, Olivier Abecassis was involved in the TF1 Group’s acquisition of aufeminin, itself built from a series of acquisitions including Marmiton, MyLittleParis and US company Livingly Media.
In 2019, he created Unify, the new home for all of the TF1 Group’s acquisitions in the digital sphere: aufeminin, Doctissimo, Gamned!, Ykone, Les Numériques, Beauté Test, Parole de Mamans, Magnetism, Vertical Station, Unify Digital Factory, and Studio71. He was appointed Chairman of Unify, which he is organising into two key businesses: advertising (media and B2B solutions), and social e-commerce.