Speaking at the ninth-annual Social TV Summit Wednesday, Endemol Beyond USA president Will Keenan talked about “bringing the digital to TV and the TV to digital” in his keynote address.

“Our success will be measured by the blurrier the lines become between the two,” Keenan told the crowd of executives, creatives and other social TV personnel gathered at Bel Air Country Club in Beverly Hills.

A former actor, film producer and stuntman, Keenan jumped to Endemol Beyond off of a meteoric rise at Maker Studios. His path to heading up Endemol’s $40 million digital division has been unorthodox, but has instilled in him an eye for individual talent and a penchant for maximizing its potential in a cross-platform age. To date, Endemol Beyond’s focus has involved striking deals with celebrities, in both traditional and online media, then leveraging their impact through “content able to live anywhere, for people to engage with when they want and how they want,” said Keenan.

Recent additions to Endemol Beyond’s roster of talent include YouTube sensation Michelle Phan, former “The Sopranos” star Drea de Matteo and Vine’s most popular female personality Brittany Furlan, who enjoys nearly 7 million followers on the video network.

One of Endemol Beyond’s many projects includes developing an original longform digital series for Furlan that he said “could be a tipping point… opening up the floodgates for advertisers” in the online space. They are also producing a digital series starring de Matteo, to be titled “The Muthaship Starring Drea de Matteo,” and have premium content deals with tween YouTube rapper MattyB, the hiphop superstar Pitbull and rocker Courtney Love.

“The talent we’ve signed, the digital celebrities are ready for primetime, the traditional celebrities are ready to blow up online,” said Keenan. “The demarcation between the traditional and the Internet star is fading away and fast.”

Though Endemol owns huge traditional broadcast properties such as “Big Brother” and “Wipeout,” Keenan said that digital “may just become the face of the company in the next few years.” During that same time period, he predicted that “most social networks will be fully monetized,” which is part of why Endemol Beyond’s talent verticals include – in addition to games, apps, graphic novels and more – comprehensive social media strategies. In the case of Pitbull, Keenan said, Endemol Beyond’s work in the social space took the rapper from No. 51 amongst musicians on Twitter to No. 30, an ascent that added millions of followers to his profile.

But the people in the room weren’t there to hear about music but television, and in that realm, Keenan said, “the viewer is the new studio boss… We in this room are currently taking active roles in how entertainment evolves. We have the chance to work with not against our audiences.

“In a very short time,” Keenan said, “my 65-year-old mother will be flipping through her tablet device and she’s not going to know nor care about the difference between broadcast and digital.”

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