In this interview, Yanis Bouazzaoui, Head of Digital, explains how he monetizes the catalog of Satisfaction Group, one of the major producers of unscripted programming. He looks back on his early bet on AI and on what it takes to stay competitive in today's media landscape, now centered on digital.

Yanis Bouazzaoui leads digital strategy at Satisfaction Group, under the leadership of the COO Anne Cohen-Scali, one of the largest independent production companies in France, behind the local versions of iconic shows such as Shark Tank and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Over the past several years, he has built a digital business from the ground up, turning a chest full of physical tapes into a true multi-platform empire spanning 150 social media accounts and reaching more than 20 million subscribers.

When you joined Satisfaction Group, there was almost no digital presence. What did that starting point look like?

In the beginning, digital was part of the activity but was limited to digital games tied to our main TV shows (Anything Goes, The Tourists, Stars Under Hypnosis, Diversion) and also promoting our productions through digital media. Over time, as Arthur Essebag, our founder, began acquiring other production companies, including subsidiaries of Sony Pictures Television France, we suddenly found ourselves with this enormous catalog and a large amount of physical material. Each company had its own specialty: Enibas produces factual and magazine content, AH Production handles documentary and reality TV, and at Satisfaction, we have more of the big entertainment formats and game shows.

We then inherited 25,000 physical tapes and the task of putting together a strategy to digitize and plan ahead for how we could exploit all this historical content! The goal: zero tapes, and that is now the case today. It was a long road involving multiple teams and processes to successfully complete this multi-stage digitization, but we made it!

So digitization was only the first step. What came next?

Three years ago, we decided to explore how we could leverage social media and Fast TV, notably to revive our big brands. We signed our first digital distribution agreements and started generating meaningful revenue and that's when everyone internally understood: this isn't just about communication anymore. It also means having a dedicated team to manage this activity. Digital isn't the future, we are already at the heart of that transformation as we evolve our business. Today, my team and I manage, among other things, content for our Fast TV operations and social media, and we track audience statistics across every platform to monitor precisely each funnel.

You mention revenue. Which social media platforms actually make money?

Our main sources of social media revenue come from Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube. Right now, fairly significant changes on Snapchat are forcing us to adapt and consider other platforms.

That's a lot of content to manage. What does your content production look like?

We publish between 100 and 140 videos a week. We either self-manage our production content or work with partners, who submit their productions through task-tracking platforms, where my teams review everything before it goes live. For certain shows whose stock of footage isn't expandable, we've already published everything. The challenge is to reassemble and re-editorialize that content, make it vertical, and find new angles so that when someone sees it again six months later, we offer them a fresh perspective and a natural new way to consume our content.

That sounds like an ideal use case for AI. How do you approach it?

We're constantly thinking about how AI can help us work smarter. We test a lot of solutions and we chose Moments Lab to unlock value from our archive. If we don't partner with the companies at the cutting edge of AI video understanding, we'll fall behind. When you have 20,000 hours of programming, you need editorially intelligent tools to manage it effectively.

What specific AI capabilities make your life easier?

If we focus on leveraging our archive, Moments Lab's Discovery Agent lets me simply type what I'm looking for, and it surfaces every relevant clip from our catalog. I can put together a compilation of whatever length I want, faster than ever, and export it in every social format: 9:16, 16:9, square, 4:5. Their solution is also continuously improving and as a partner, we work together to test and develop certain features.

What's also remarkable is the platform's ability to identify people in footage and spot viral sequences. For example, I once had a situation where a reality TV star asked us to stop using clips featuring a family member. The person is automatically detected across our media library, so we were able to find every one of those clips and digitally remove them using an editing tool. Features like that are worth their weight in gold to us. Automated multi-language subtitling is also a major time-saver, since I don't need to step  outside the closed, self-contained environment that Moments Lab provides.

What's your vision for global expansion?

We have the license of iconic brands like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Shark Tank, shows recognized around the world. There is still plenty of opportunities to explore such as completing our channels with foreign versions, create new content or spin-offs tailor made for social networks to double our French versions and reach out to international streaming, VOD, and social media partners.

What drives you to bet on emerging technologies, even when the return on investment isn't guaranteed?

If you don't adopt emerging technologies, you lose the race. It's no longer news that linear TV advertising declines every year. A few years ago, digital was the last priority for players in our market. Today, it has become an essential factor and is fully embedded in Satisfaction Group's strategy as we reinvent ourselves and push the boundaries of creation. We act as a laboratory where you can easily test as you are your own editor. We benefit from the unique know-how of the Group on creation and production. Combined with our digital expertise it opens all the doors to explore new content opportunities; for ourselves, for third party producers and for brands in search of new ways to approach and engage their customer base.

Last question: what advice would you give to other production companies sitting on valuable archives?

Start now. Don't wait for the perfect moment or the perfect tool. Spoiler: they will never exist. It's the same with AI tools: everything changes every 30 minutes, and that's exactly the marathon you can't afford to miss. While others wait, your dormant archives can already become your next revenue stream. Find partners, the way we did with Moments Lab, who are pushing AI innovation forward and who give you the ability to influence the development of future features.

And be pragmatic. Every tool, every partnership has to be backed by a real cost-benefit analysis. But once you've found something that works, roll it out at scale. The content is already there. The audiences are already there. All you need are the systems and the mindset to make the most of them.

Book a demo meeting to learn how Moments Lab helps you turn your hit shows into more social video that builds brands and drives new revenue opportunities.