In Conversation with Sergio Vitaliti
Sergio Vitaliti has built his professional career within the Vivendi Group, developing solid international experience in finance within the entertainment sector. For more than five years, he worked at Blizzard Entertainment, where he served as Financial Director Europe, overseeing the financial management of European operations in a highly competitive global environment.
He subsequently joined Vivendi’s Special Projects and Internal Audit Department, contributing to group-level special projects and financial control activities, with a particular focus on M&A transactions involving Vivendi companies in North and South America. This phase further strengthened his strategic profile and cross-disciplinary view of the entertainment business.
His move into music-driven audiovisual content came through his involvement in the production of Pavarotti (2019), the documentary directed by Ron Howard, followed by The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. These projects marked the beginning of his path at Polygram Entertainment—part of the Universal Music Group ecosystem—as a platform dedicated to developing long-form musical content capable of enhancing artists and catalogues on a global scale.
Italy Meets Hollywood met Sergio Vitaliti at his Santa Monica office at a symbolic moment marking more than twenty years of professional experience within the Vivendi ecosystem and, subsequently, Universal Music Group. The conversation retraces a career spanning music, audiovisual content, and major international entertainment groups, while also exploring the role of finance in the development of music-driven content for cinema and global platforms.
IMH: You currently serve as Vice President, Head of Finance at Polygram Entertainment (part of Universal Music Group), a key position within a global leader in the music industry. Looking back at your professional journey, which experiences and skills proved most decisive in reaching this role?
Sergio Vitaliti: I came to entertainment finance with a very simple idea: the fundamentals of finance don’t change—whether you work in food, energy, or content. What changes is the context, the pace, and the level of complexity, but discipline and logic remain the same.
In my case, three elements were key. The first was curiosity: being willing to take on challenges even when I hadn’t “done it all” before, and learning on the job. The second was a willingness to step up—often at an intense pace—during periods when the company was growing and needed to build processes, systems, and controls. The third was trust. In this industry, holding positions of responsibility requires organizational trust, which is built over time through results, consistency, and reliability.
This is also why I see my trajectory as a journey within the group’s ecosystem: from early experiences in other sectors, to high-growth international environments like Blizzard Entertainment, to corporate roles, and ultimately to Polygram Entertainment.
IMH: In the music industry, finance is not just about cost control but also a strategic tool to make creative ideas sustainable. How do you balance financial discipline with the need to preserve and enhance creativity?
Sergio Vitaliti: Finance becomes truly strategic when it succeeds in doing one thing: giving creatives the resources and space to express their vision, while maintaining a solid and sustainable structure.
In entertainment, there’s also an aspect that isn’t always intuitive for “pure finance” professionals: some projects involve taking calculated risks, knowing that the financial outcome may not be ideal. But you do them because there’s something more at stake—cultural impact, an artist’s legacy, the relationship with fans. In music and audiovisual content, you’re not just “selling a product”; you’re also building value in terms of identity, memory, and community.
For me, the balance is this: discipline and numbers as the framework, creativity as the engine. If either is missing, the system doesn’t hold.
IMH: In the audiovisual sector, “long-form musical content” refers to medium- to long-duration works in which music is the narrative axis or main creative driver—from music documentaries and biopics to scripted and unscripted films and series, as well as narrative podcasts. For a company like Polygram Entertainment, operating as an audiovisual platform within the Universal Music Group ecosystem—one of the world’s largest music catalogues—what strategic role do these projects play today? And how does long-form content contribute to long-term value creation for artists and catalogues?
Sergio Vitaliti: For Polygram Entertainment, long-form content is a strategic asset precisely because it enables the creation of deep, lasting, and recognizable narratives over time.
One point I consider central today is that music is no longer just for the ears—it’s also for the eyes. The video ecosystem has become vastly more complex: platforms, channels, consumption time, and content demand have all expanded. Within this growing demand, music-intensive long-form content has found a natural space: it tells stories, creates context, reinforces an artist’s identity, and—above all—strengthens the relationship with fans.
Moreover, when you work “within” an artist’s ecosystem, you can create official and authentic projects based on archives and direct access to key people. That fundamentally changes the quality of storytelling. A recent example is Selena y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy, released on Netflix on November 17, 2025.
IMH: We live in an ecosystem increasingly dominated by short-form content, yet at the same time we see strong interest in long-form formats. From an industry perspective, what value do you assign to each of these formats today, and how do they coexist within an overall strategy?
Sergio Vitaliti: I see them as complementary, not interchangeable.
Short-form content is designed for virality and rapid reach—it’s an accelerator for discovery and engagement, often serving as a first point of contact, especially for younger audiences. Long-form content, on the other hand, is the space for depth: it truly tells a story, builds loyalty, and creates a stronger, more enduring connection.
And the relationship works both ways: a short clip can be the gateway to a documentary or film, just as a long-form project can generate countless short pieces through clips and fragments that circulate and continue to live over time.
IMH: With the expansion of podcasts—often also in video format—the use of music presents specific challenges in terms of rights clearance and licensing models. From a financial perspective, how are these complexities addressed, and what potential do you see for podcasts as a new space for music catalogue valorization?
Sergio Vitaliti: Podcasts are certainly a new area of value creation, and I don’t see rights issues as a roadblock so much as part of a broader complexity the industry is already managing on multiple fronts. Today, licensing spans many environments and formats: social media, retail, hospitality, digital content, and now audio and video podcasts.
From an industry standpoint, the direction is clear: we need increasingly robust and up-to-date clearance and remuneration mechanisms. And when a model fails to provide fair compensation, the industry has shown it can negotiate firmly—as demonstrated by the dispute between UMG and TikTok, which was later resolved through a new licensing agreement announced on May 1, 2024.
The potential of podcasts lies precisely here: they are a growing format capable of building narrative and identity—and, if properly structured from a rights perspective, they can become an additional lever to re-engage fans and give new life to music catalogues.
IMH: Which projects or development lines is Polygram Entertainment currently focused on, and which areas do you see as most strategic for the near future?
Sergio Vitaliti: The direction is to continue developing music-driven long-form content with high production standards, working with talent and partners capable of scaling these projects globally.
On the title front, a major upcoming project is Man on the Run, focused on Paul McCartney and the Wings era, set for a global debut on Prime Video on February 27, 2026.
More broadly, the strategic focus remains on investing in stories that have real value for fans and can stand the test of time: premium documentaries, content combining archives, direct access, and strong storytelling, and—where it makes sense—experimentation with formats and languages (including animation and family projects), always with music as the creative core.
Italy Meets Hollywood thanks Sergio Vitaliti for his availability and for sharing insights and perspectives that help illuminate the evolution of long-form musical content and the industrial dynamics supporting its development on a global scale.
Italy Meets Hollywood © — All rights reserved.
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Sergio Vitaliti has built his professional career within the Vivendi Group, developing solid international experience in finance within the entertainment sector. For more than five years, he worked at Blizzard Entertainment, where he served as Financial Director Europe, overseeing the financial management of European operations in a highly competitive global environment.
He subsequently joined Vivendi’s Special Projects and Internal Audit Department, contributing to group-level special projects and financial control activities, with a particular focus on M&A transactions involving Vivendi companies in North and South America. This phase further strengthened his strategic profile and cross-disciplinary view of the entertainment business.
His move into music-driven audiovisual content came through his involvement in the production of Pavarotti (2019), the documentary directed by Ron Howard, followed by The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. These projects marked the beginning of his path at Polygram Entertainment—part of the Universal Music Group ecosystem—as a platform dedicated to developing long-form musical content capable of enhancing artists and catalogues on a global scale.
Italy Meets Hollywood met Sergio Vitaliti at his Santa Monica office at a symbolic moment marking more than twenty years of professional experience within the Vivendi ecosystem and, subsequently, Universal Music Group. The conversation retraces a career spanning music, audiovisual content, and major international entertainment groups, while also exploring the role of finance in the development of music-driven content for cinema and global platforms.
IMH: You currently serve as Vice President, Head of Finance at Polygram Entertainment (part of Universal Music Group), a key position within a global leader in the music industry. Looking back at your professional journey, which experiences and skills proved most decisive in reaching this role?
Sergio Vitaliti: I came to entertainment finance with a very simple idea: the fundamentals of finance don’t change—whether you work in food, energy, or content. What changes is the context, the pace, and the level of complexity, but discipline and logic remain the same.
In my case, three elements were key. The first was curiosity: being willing to take on challenges even when I hadn’t “done it all” before, and learning on the job. The second was a willingness to step up—often at an intense pace—during periods when the company was growing and needed to build processes, systems, and controls. The third was trust. In this industry, holding positions of responsibility requires organizational trust, which is built over time through results, consistency, and reliability.
This is also why I see my trajectory as a journey within the group’s ecosystem: from early experiences in other sectors, to high-growth international environments like Blizzard Entertainment, to corporate roles, and ultimately to Polygram Entertainment.
IMH: In the music industry, finance is not just about cost control but also a strategic tool to make creative ideas sustainable. How do you balance financial discipline with the need to preserve and enhance creativity?
Sergio Vitaliti: Finance becomes truly strategic when it succeeds in doing one thing: giving creatives the resources and space to express their vision, while maintaining a solid and sustainable structure.
In entertainment, there’s also an aspect that isn’t always intuitive for “pure finance” professionals: some projects involve taking calculated risks, knowing that the financial outcome may not be ideal. But you do them because there’s something more at stake—cultural impact, an artist’s legacy, the relationship with fans. In music and audiovisual content, you’re not just “selling a product”; you’re also building value in terms of identity, memory, and community.
For me, the balance is this: discipline and numbers as the framework, creativity as the engine. If either is missing, the system doesn’t hold.
IMH: In the audiovisual sector, “long-form musical content” refers to medium- to long-duration works in which music is the narrative axis or main creative driver—from music documentaries and biopics to scripted and unscripted films and series, as well as narrative podcasts. For a company like Polygram Entertainment, operating as an audiovisual platform within the Universal Music Group ecosystem—one of the world’s largest music catalogues—what strategic role do these projects play today? And how does long-form content contribute to long-term value creation for artists and catalogues?
Sergio Vitaliti: For Polygram Entertainment, long-form content is a strategic asset precisely because it enables the creation of deep, lasting, and recognizable narratives over time.
One point I consider central today is that music is no longer just for the ears—it’s also for the eyes. The video ecosystem has become vastly more complex: platforms, channels, consumption time, and content demand have all expanded. Within this growing demand, music-intensive long-form content has found a natural space: it tells stories, creates context, reinforces an artist’s identity, and—above all—strengthens the relationship with fans.
Moreover, when you work “within” an artist’s ecosystem, you can create official and authentic projects based on archives and direct access to key people. That fundamentally changes the quality of storytelling. A recent example is Selena y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy, released on Netflix on November 17, 2025.
IMH: We live in an ecosystem increasingly dominated by short-form content, yet at the same time we see strong interest in long-form formats. From an industry perspective, what value do you assign to each of these formats today, and how do they coexist within an overall strategy?
Sergio Vitaliti: I see them as complementary, not interchangeable.
Short-form content is designed for virality and rapid reach—it’s an accelerator for discovery and engagement, often serving as a first point of contact, especially for younger audiences. Long-form content, on the other hand, is the space for depth: it truly tells a story, builds loyalty, and creates a stronger, more enduring connection.
And the relationship works both ways: a short clip can be the gateway to a documentary or film, just as a long-form project can generate countless short pieces through clips and fragments that circulate and continue to live over time.
IMH: With the expansion of podcasts—often also in video format—the use of music presents specific challenges in terms of rights clearance and licensing models. From a financial perspective, how are these complexities addressed, and what potential do you see for podcasts as a new space for music catalogue valorization?
Sergio Vitaliti: Podcasts are certainly a new area of value creation, and I don’t see rights issues as a roadblock so much as part of a broader complexity the industry is already managing on multiple fronts. Today, licensing spans many environments and formats: social media, retail, hospitality, digital content, and now audio and video podcasts.
From an industry standpoint, the direction is clear: we need increasingly robust and up-to-date clearance and remuneration mechanisms. And when a model fails to provide fair compensation, the industry has shown it can negotiate firmly—as demonstrated by the dispute between UMG and TikTok, which was later resolved through a new licensing agreement announced on May 1, 2024.
The potential of podcasts lies precisely here: they are a growing format capable of building narrative and identity—and, if properly structured from a rights perspective, they can become an additional lever to re-engage fans and give new life to music catalogues.
IMH: Which projects or development lines is Polygram Entertainment currently focused on, and which areas do you see as most strategic for the near future?
Sergio Vitaliti: The direction is to continue developing music-driven long-form content with high production standards, working with talent and partners capable of scaling these projects globally.
On the title front, a major upcoming project is Man on the Run, focused on Paul McCartney and the Wings era, set for a global debut on Prime Video on February 27, 2026.
More broadly, the strategic focus remains on investing in stories that have real value for fans and can stand the test of time: premium documentaries, content combining archives, direct access, and strong storytelling, and—where it makes sense—experimentation with formats and languages (including animation and family projects), always with music as the creative core.
Italy Meets Hollywood thanks Sergio Vitaliti for his availability and for sharing insights and perspectives that help illuminate the evolution of long-form musical content and the industrial dynamics supporting its development on a global scale.
Italy Meets Hollywood © — All rights reserved.
