RTS Cambridge Convention
TV Everywhere: Paths to Growth
14-16 September 2011
Wednesday 14 September
14.30 Accommodation Registration opens
King’s College
Delegate Registration opens in the Concert Hall
16.00 Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture
'TV: Modern Father of History'
Bettany Hughes uses this year’s Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture to argue that history on television is back – and enjoying a new golden age. Setting out the opportunities, she explores why programme makers should look to the ancients for inspiration, how television can become an active player in the historical process itself and why audiences are looking to the past to help navigate a complex modern world.
Speaker: Bettany Hughes
18.15 BBC Reception in the Concert Hall
19.00 Welcome
By Peter Bazalgette, President, Royal Television Society
19.05 Session One: Keynote Speech
The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, gives the keynote speech in the context of the rapidly changing media environment and with the spotlight on the creative sector as a driver for economic growth, followed by Q&A with Adam Crozier, Chair, RTS Advisory Committee.
20.00 End of Day One
20.30 RTL Group Dinner King’s College
Thursday 15 September
09.10 Opening Concert Hall
Adam Crozier, Chair, RTS Advisory Committee/CEO, ITV
09.20 Session Two: Smart Thinking – The Opportunities of Converged TV
They’re here! In stores all over Britain big new smart TVs are being unpacked from their polystyrene wrapping and set up ready to grace the nation’s living rooms. Smart TVs and equally smart boxes are the new media battle ground. Gaming companies, TV set manufacturers, established broadcasters, content producers, software developers and search engines are all vying to control and monetise this clever new entertainment portal. With help from Redshift, David Mitchell, writer, comedian and mild technophile, takes the technology for a spin and then asks who is best placed to grow their business out of the revolution of convergence.
Chair
David Mitchell
Presentation
Janice Hughes, Director, Redshift Strategy and Alex Street, Business Analyst, Redshift Strategy
Panel
Andrew Barron, Chief Operating Officer, Virgin Media
Richard Halton, Chief Executive Officer, YouView
Linda Summers, Director – Product Marketing, Skype
Gerhard Zeiler, Chief Executive Officer, RTL Group
10.35 Coffee
11.00 Session Three: Data, Data Everywhere
Data, data everywhere, but not much time to think.
In a multi-platform digital world, audience data floods in from every direction. But how can we harness its power to ensure ‘return on insight’ rather than be submerged by its complexity? Will data become a jealously guarded weapon to provide commercial advantage or will the long-established tradition of companies sharing ratings knowledge still prevail? And in a world now highly sensitised to privacy, who says we have the right to poke around in another person’s data anyway?
Chair
Dawn Airey, President, CLT-UFA TV UK
Presentation
Richard Marks, Chief Executive Officer, Kantar Media Audiences
Panel
David Abraham, Chief Executive Officer, Channel 4
Matt Brittin, Managing Director, UK and Ireland Operations, Google
12.00 Session Four: International Keynote – David Zaslav
'Content is King: Why Programmers Will Reign in New Multiplatform Universe'
David Zaslav, President & CEO of Discovery Communications, and one of the most successful TV executives of our generation, will outline the business model of the world's number one non-fiction media company - investing ‘on the screen’ to fuel growth around the globe while delivering to viewers who increasingly seek for content beyond TV. David will explore Discovery's strategy of owning the rights to the majority of its content and outline how the company is leveraging its worldwide presence to develop and feed programming and formats to and from the US, UK, Europe, Asia and Latin America. David will also address the current and future impact of ‘over-the-top’ platforms on the traditional cable business model.
Chair
Patrick Younge, Chief Creative Officer, BBC Vision
13.00 Lunch King’s College
14.15 Session Five: Breaking Windows
The digital world demands new strategies for funding and releasing content across platforms and across the world. If Breaking Windows were a film, it would be a coming of age movie: a fast paced story of distribution technology and profit margins, of the old guard having to accept and even embrace the new. As soon as the film is released it would be followed by the DVD, the VOD, the app, the Twitter feed, the YouTube link and the Facebook page, all fragmenting but just maybe augmenting the audience. With an all-star cast, this will be an unmissable discussion of the opportunities and threats of windowing in the new world.
Chair
Lorraine Heggessey
Presentation
Mark Oliver, Chief Executive Officer, Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates
Panel
Josh Berger, President & Managing Director, Warner Bros Entertainment UK, Ireland and Spain
Fru Hazlitt, Managing Director, Commercial & Online, ITV
Mike Darcey, Chief Operating Officer, BSkyB
Michael Comish, Chief Operating Officer & Co-founder, blinkbox.com
15.15 Session Six: How To Build A Billion Pound Business
British TV today is a global success story. With hits such as Doctor Who, The X Factor, Coronation Street, Strictly Come Dancing and Come Dine With Me the UK is now reckoned to be the biggest exporter of TV formats in the world, and second only to the USA in the finished programmes we export. What's behind the astonishing growth of TV exports in the past 10 years? What can British TV do to build on this worldwide success? Where might future growth come from? Which countries, which formats, which genres? And is it time we had our very own massive global player – a UK studio on the giant scale of a Disney or a Time Warner? If so, who is it going to be? Are they sitting in the room right now? Our panel brings together three industry leaders who between them are responsible for selling thousands of hours of hit shows to scores of countries around the world, generating multi-millions for their shareholders or their stakeholders, and for the British economy into the bargain.
Chair
Greg Dyke
Presentation
Mathew Horsman, Director, Mediatique
Panel
Tony Cohen, Chief Executive Officer, FremantleMedia
Alex Mahon, President, Shine Group
John Smith, Chief Executive, BBC Worldwide
16:15 Tea
16:45 Session Seven: Lord Patten, Chairman, BBC Trust
His first major speech as Chairman of the BBC Trust was to an RTS audience. In it Chris Patten caught the headlines with his proposals to prune both senior management bonuses and numbers. But he also talked vividly about applying old BBC values to new technologies, and creating something exceptional out of the marriage of “the social and personal elements of the internet” and “the editorial and curatorial ambition of the BBC”. Also on his agenda was protecting BBC Worldwide against privatisation and turning the Trust into “the conscience of the BBC”. Not afraid of facing up to the big cheeses at the BBC, Chris Patten is now ready to take on the big cheeses of the commercial TV and online world at Cambridge.
Chair
Peter Bazalgette
17.45 End of Day Two
19.15 ITV Reception King’s College
20.00 RTS Dinner King’s College
Friday 16 September
09.10 Introduction
By Adam Crozier, Chair, RTS Advisory Committee/CEO, ITV
09.15 Session Eight: Sir Martin Sorrell – The Smart Money
The holy grail of advertising is sending a specific message to a particular person at the right time. So what does convergence mean to the Mad Men of today? Is it an opportunity to target consumers like never before, or is it a world where advertisers lose control of the message. And what about the money – will internet and television advertising budgets also converge, meaning more money for everyone, or will it make sense for Adsense to muscle in on the TV market? ITV News’ Business Editor Laura Kuenssberg will put those questions and more to Sir Martin Sorrell
Chair
Laura Kuenssberg, Business Editor, ITV News
Speaker
Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive, WPP
10.15 Coffee
10.45 Session Nine: The Bill And Beyond
The world has changed significantly since the last Communications Act in 2003 – a piece of legislation that didn’t even mention the word ‘internet’! As the pace of change speeds up, what needs to be done to frame a new regulatory environment which encourages the industry to flourish and stimulates creative investment, while ensuring fair and balanced competition between different providers? And what impact will “Hackgate” have on the Bill? Might the Leveson Inquiry have an effect on the future shape of broadcasting as a whole? Chair Steve Hewlett will help guide us through the issues with a distinguished panel of industry leaders.
Chair
Steve Hewlett
Panel
Richard Allan, Director of Policy EU, Facebook
Lord Burns, Chairman, Channel 4
Dido Harding, Chief Executive Officer, TalkTalk Telecom Group
Steve Morrison, Chief Executive, All3Media
12.00 Session Ten: View From The Bridge
As the Convention draws to a close, leaders from our four main broadcasters reflect on the issues raised over the last two days and explain their visions and strategies to grow and succeed in a world of digital complexity. How will they exploit the opportunities and dodge the threats offered by the new technologies?
Chair
Stewart Purvis CBE, Professor of Television Journalism, City University
Panel
David Abraham, Chief Executive Officer, Channel 4
Adam Crozier, Chief Executive Officer, ITV
Mike Darcey, Chief Operating Officer, BSkyB
Mark Thompson, Director General, BBC
13.00 Convention Closing
By Peter Bazalgette, President, Royal Television Society
13.15 Lunch King’s College
