What happens when a media executive walks away from the world of celebrity and spotlights? César Couto Ferreira, the former MTV and Vice Media powerhouse, traded backstage passes with global icons like Madonna and Coldplay for a mission with more depth. After launching media empires across Europe and Brazil, he realized that glitz alone wasn’t enough—he wanted impact. Now, he’s bringing his creative and business savvy to olio.is and Streamhub, shaping the future of media with a blend of vision, strategy, and just the right amount of rockstar energy.Key Highlights of Our Interview:MTV: From a Dream to Daily Life“Watching MTV as a kid, I thought, ‘That’s the dream.’ By 2003, I was living it. From Portugal to London, I went from fan to colleague—working with my idols and hanging out with heroes.”A Front-Row Seat to Media Transformation“From analog to digital, concerts to streaming, I’ve been at the frontline of media’s biggest shift. And yes, I saw REM’s last concert—jealous yet? Launching MTV Portugal, mentoring MTV Base Africa, bringing MTV Italy and Greece to life—it was a whirlwind of concerts, launches, and 1 billion viewers streaming the EMAs from Lisbon.”The Dark Side of the Spotlight“Being immersed in the industry, I witnessed its pitfalls. Amy Winehouse, a radiant talent, was in the wrong hands. Seeing how brilliance was overshadowed by exploitation made me question the industry’s priorities. When Amy died, it wasn’t just a loss; it was a wake-up call. I couldn’t be part of a system that profits from pain. That day, I knew—I needed to change the game.”A Quest for a Better Industry“Creativity deserves care, not exploitation. That realization sparked a mission to create spaces where artistry thrives without the shadows of industry’s darker sides.”Designing Society, One Summit at a Time“As a self-proclaimed ‘designer for society,’ I worked with governments and innovators to connect tourism and tech. The Web Summit is proof that big ideas and small countries can make magic.”_________________________Connect with Us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Cesar Couto Ferreira______________________--**Chief Change Officer**--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs,Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts.6 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today. --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is César Couto Ferreira and what is his background?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today's guest is Cecil Coutu Ferreira from Portugal, a beautiful, beautiful country I visited a few years ago to join the Web Summit in Lisbon as a guest and a speaker.
The people are warm. The food is great. The sea and the sky are so blue. I surely want to go back. This episode is like a real-life version of the popular HBO TV series, Secession. I'm sure many of you watched the show. It's not just about a secession war for the top job of CEO within a super wealthy and powerful family, but also about the war in old media versus new media and tech.
a succession from old money to new money. Since the beginning of the century, Cecil has been involved in this transformation from analog to digital media, from a DJ and TV presenter to an MTV Networks executive, working with Madonna and all the music stars. He's seen the bright and the dark sides of 21st century media and entertainment. Without further ado, let's get into the war.
Chapter 2: How did César transition from science to media?
When I was a kid, I was always keen for biology, for science. And I went to the biotech. And I had the opportunity to do this scholarship. And I went to France. I was an high performance athlete when I was 19. And this is obviously the passion of my life. But I had a family that was in media. All my family from my mom's side, basically, they were working in media and radio.
Philosophers, they were thinkers, basically. Very creative people. And my brain in a way was divided. I've always wanted for the logical side of things, but my DNA, let's put it like this, my genetics and my environment was pushing me to arts and to be creative. There was a time that I finished my graduation and I thought, okay, I'm going to do biotech and I'm going to work with wine.
I'm going to do it. Everything I dream of, but my passion was radio. And this is really good because we're doing a podcast. So this for me is really nice. So radio just was raving for me. It was calling me and my dreams obviously was resonating. And I had this amazing opportunity to become a radio DJ. Quite early in my life. And I was studying at the same time and doing radio at the same time.
And I finished my grad and suddenly someone asked me, and this is really funny because I was having this coffee conversation. And someone was listening to me and saying, are you that guy? And I said, yeah. And he said, do you want to work for my radio? Can be the radio manager. I was 23 years old. And I became a radio manager. Then I accepted and I was quite successful. And then television came.
I just became this TV host for a local TV channel. In a very brief moment of my life, in three, four years, my dream come true. I always said that I wanted to work for MTV. I was always watching MTV when I was a kid. And I was honestly, I'm going to work one day. I'm going to work on MTV. But I never thought that was possible because this is a channel in the US.
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Chapter 3: What was César's experience working with MTV?
I never felt that they were going to come to Europe. I never felt they were going to come to Portugal. And I never felt I was going to get out of Portugal. I'm 49. This is almost like 22 years ago. And it happened. Suddenly, I got into MTV. I signed a deal with them. They launched MTV Portugal. And in 2003, I just moved to London. And everything was new to me.
And this is the first step for me to discover the world by myself in this big company. And I was the youngest programming manager in Europe. And suddenly, I was working with my idol. I was surrounded by them. I have daily conversations with them. I was seeing my heroes, artists, people that I really love.
After two weeks in London, I was sitting down in coffee places and bars and clubs and hanging around with people that I admire. And this is a transformation for me. This is the transformation that I embraced for nine years almost at MTV. And I started with... MTV Portugal, then I launched MTV Bessafric as a mentor. I moved to MTV Italy. I launched MTV Greece.
It was the first licensee in Europe, first full HD channel for MTV Europe. And that was crazy. You know, it's a R.E.M. last concert in Europe, 70,000 people to do the EMAs in Lisbon, 2005, you know, 1 billion people streaming and watching it. See, we already go into the direction of streaming.
I think we're looking at something much, much bigger than just a personal transformation. Your three-minute career story is not only your own evolution, but also a pivotal shift in the entire media and entertainment industry. From the analog world to the digital and social media age,
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Chapter 4: Why did César move from MTV to Vice?
With MTV, with Vice, I'm happy with that. I know that I did a good job. I had an influence. And when you work with a global brand that has such a huge voice, you're going to do good. If you want to do good. And I did a good thing. So I'm really happy for that. And it's really easy to work in a global brand. It's so easy because things come to you.
You just have to say, I work for MTV and everything's good. Everybody opens your doors. Then comes the failure part of things. Digital is not... performing well for us. And I think the future is in the digital world. And I knew Shane Smith from Vice. And I know the guys, the founders from Vice at the time. And I saw what they're doing in a very narcissistic way.
And I moved to Vice because it was the CNN of the streets as the claim said it at the time. And WPPE was on board. Everyone was on board. They were doing an amazing job at the time. So I moved to Vice. And from that on, I just decided, okay, I'm going to embrace technology, and I'm going to embrace innovation. I was already working in tech since 2009, but I couldn't tell anyone. I had a sidekick.
I had a friend of mine that was the founder also of this company, and we were just doing projects on the sidelines just for fun. It was a fun business at the time for me, but I was in love by tech. When you work with a multinational global love brand, Your IP, your intelligence belongs to them. You sign a waiver, it's normal. You just find that everything that you create belongs to them.
One thing I surely appreciate, and I think you'll echo this, is that working in big corporations, no matter the industry, can be an incredible training ground. The opportunities are massive with a powerful brand, lending prestige to your resume. But at the end of the day, much of what you work on isn't really your own intellectual property.
With that in mind, and considering you moved on back then, I'm curious about your thought process behind this decision. The reason I'm asking is that many of us, as we develop our career paths, face moments that are either expected or completely out of the blue. Each decision, each transition, I believe, is a delicate balance between logic and psychology.
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Chapter 5: What was the turning point for César in the media industry?
You mentioned earlier that while you are trained in science with a very logical mind, you're also very into art, into creative work, into philosophy. So back then, how did you navigate this balance when making career decisions?
Now that's a really good question. And this is what politics say when they want to think about that question. I'm going to just think about that question. Definitely transformation never ends. We know that. Transformation never ends. What was the X factor? What was the moment that really made me change? I knew that I was a creative person. I always suffer from imposter syndrome. It's normal.
I need to change. And the industry was a little bit sick at the time. And there's an episode in my life, and a lot of people... don't know about this, but obviously when I moved to London, I was living in Camden Town. Camden Town is surrounded by artists. It's where everyone is. From Ricky Gervais to Amy Winehouse, everyone is there. And I was being immersed by that. And I met them.
And when I saw, and I was one of the first people to introduce Amy Winehouse to 10 people in London, in the networks, before she recorded Frank, I was listening to her songs. I was hanging around. I knew a lot of her people. We were going to the same pub in Camden. We were almost neighbors. I lived in the same street as Coldplay. And I was like, damn, this is wrong. This is definitely wrong.
We're not doing the best we can for the people. And we're not helping really creative and intelligent people like Jamie Winehouse. She was one of the most beautiful people I know. She was such a creative and talented singer. And I saw what the industry was doing to her. Because she was in the wrong place with the wrong people.
A lot of people, obviously, if you go and read about Amy, you're going to see the documentaries. You're going to see their bio. You're going to find out she suffered from anorexia when she was quite young. And that's the thing. We don't care about people. We just want to do the profitable way. And at the time, it was her dad. And I was in the beach when someone called me.
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Chapter 6: How did Amy Winehouse's death influence César's career decisions?
I was still working for MTV, obviously. And someone calls me. Same feeling that I felt when they called me saying, look, Amy just died. I felt like when I was woke up at 5 a.m. with Michael Jackson saying, Michael Jackson just died. What we're going to do? Because this is what happens, you know, when we prepare ourselves for them. When you work in the networks, you prepare yourselves.
You discuss your pituary in the beginning of the year. And this is really bad. But this is the truth. This is newsflash. So we prepare the pituary and we think, okay, who's going to die this year? Who are the ones that are going to mentally go down the drain?
And when Amy died to me, because I was close by and I knew her and everything, that was something that I said, no, it's not enough is enough. I don't want to be more. I don't want to be part of this. I want to change that. It was quite decisive to say, look, we need to change things. And I just wanted to change things basically.
Your experience reminds me of the movie, Jerry Maguire. Have you seen it yourself? Your work was essentially a people-first industry. Yet, oftentimes, these very people are treated more like products. And when you truly care about individuals as real humans with lives, worries, emotions, and inevitable endpoints, it changes everything.
Once you delve into the business aspects, as well as the personal connections with these individuals you interact with daily, it creates a profound internal conflict. I think of it as a struggle between two mindsets, or the usual saying, drama is the reality, reality is the drama.
It's crazy because I always say to people, reality is much way, way stranger than fiction. The way that we talk, the way people come to me and say, Hey, how is it working with Viacom and all that succession? People think, oh, come on, this is like media moguls, Game of Thrones. It's amazing. You've been there. It's chill, man. It's not like that. It's not like that.
Obviously, there's a lot of things that are inspired in real life, but real life is going to be much more complicated. It's going to be real. It's not science. It's not fiction. Sorry. So when I think about these people and when I think about the person that inspired Jerry Maguire, they are so kind and so humble, full of knowledge. This is what I learned from them. And they are artists of change.
And they know that nothing lasts forever. They know that.
Artists of change. Yes. Change is an art more than a science. You work in a media industry. It's always about the glamour. You travel to all those places, parties, stores.
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Chapter 7: What challenges exist in balancing personal connections and business in media?
Yeah, slash the hotel all the time. Exactly. They pump your ego all the time. But if you want to be a pioneer, you're going to face the wall.
Yeah, the wall is right there. It's just right there.
Exactly. It's like when you're the first person in the world to do something, you're touching the wall. It's not like I'm not going to face the wall. I'm touching the wall and I'm trying to understand the texture of the wall and how I can grasp between the branches of the wall.
You've told me before that you're all in for building a legacy. After experiencing the highs and lows of the media and entertainment industry, you've gone on to build ventures and venture ecosystem in Brazil and back home in Portugal. A key highlight, I believe, has been your involvement with the Web Summit in Lisbon. While Patty Cosgrave might be the face and voice of the summit,
You've played a crucial role at a national level, influencing the government to take a leap of faith in integrating tourism with technology. Share with us your involvement in bringing this major event to the forefront. And looking at the bigger picture, what kind of legacy are you aiming to build that makes you proud
I'm a designer for society. That's what I did. Why did it happen and how did it happen? And I need to go back a little bit because Portugal was such a small country, such a small country, and we were an event country. As I see it, and from my own experience, in 98, Portugal did the Expo and that changed Lisbon, changed the perception. We understood the rules.
We understand how to create huge events. After that, 2004, we have the Euro Cup. Again, a lot of tourism coming by. A lot of people come to Portugal. People, they saw something, some paradise. And then 2005, this is my moment. This is when I feel that I had something to do with this. Because we have the European Music Awards. European Music Awards in Portugal. And this is Lisbon, come on, 2005.
And we had everyone. We had Madonna, Coldplay, Robin Williams. We had Borat as the host of that EMAs. And we had, we were live for 1 billion people. And Madonna came to Portugal and she fell in love by Portugal.
Hmm.
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