FROM THE INDUSTRY
Welcome to your new role. How are you getting on? I was attracted to the role of Chair of IBC because the event is all about shaping what’s next, not just reacting to it, but trying to lead the change. With my background at Sky and Google I’ve always been most at home in businesses that are relentlessly innovative. The scope of our industry has widened hugely in the last few years – there are streamers, broadcasters, international businesses creating their own content and there is new talent coming into the industry all the time. IBC has amazing convening power. If we can be a good destination for innovation, inspiration, and collaboration, then that’s an exciting opportunity for us. The brightest minds in media and entertainment share knowledge, create solutions, forge the future of content, and IBC is the catalyst for it all. That was the reason that I was interested in becoming Chair. But as non-exec Chair, I’m here to encourage, support, be useful; to inspire, to be inspired and to learn from my fantastic executive team. IBC is such a powerful brand that doesn’t seem to have any one image attached to it. We’re lucky. It seems to be one that is able to move with the times. Well, I think that’s one of the strengths of the show. It’s owned by the industry and it’s for the whole industry. It genuinely appeals to the whole business, from film to TV, but it’s important to content creation, postproduction, distribution, streaming. With 14 halls and more than 1,250 exhibitors, a narrow focus doesn’t work. Diversity is the show’s strength, in other words. What themes are on the agenda? The way that people consume content is changing so much. Across the whole media entertainment industry, we are experiencing an accelerated shift from AI and automation to new content models, to shifting market dynamics. You can see TF1 putting its linear channels on the Netflix platform, for example, so that’s an
Then I was at Sky in the UK for 10 years as Group Commercial director. Then onto Google, where I was responsible for the EMEA region for YouTube. Lots of diversity and change within all that and working in different countries. you must have witnessed a lot of change in that time. Indeed; since graduating from Bocconi where I did my MBA, I’ve not had a job that existed when I left Nottingham with a physics degree. My science degree has been quite handy in the end. I’m still quite committed to making science a sort of bigger part of everybody’s everyday lives, because I’m also a trustee of the Royal Institution, because of my general belief that if there was a bit more science, a bit more data and a few more facts in life, that would be a good thing. I agree. not that long ago we were being told ‘the country has had enough of experts,’ after all. How has the industry evolved over the years? Technological change has enabled previously siloed sectors of the industry to communicate better. You can watch video on your phone or streamed on your television now. Some of the original experiments to set up TV took place just around the corner from the Royal Institution in London; John Logie Baird’s original offices were in the building that is now Bar Italia in Soho. And around the corner, Michael Faraday was discovering the electron at the Royal Institution. There’s a long tradition in London of mixing the creative with the scientific; the molding of what’s possible technologically, using that technology to tell stories. AI is just the latest in a series of many technological changes which continue to define our industry.
interesting new market dynamic. YouTube is embracing broadcasters and vice versa; a new market dynamic. Employing AI to create either better content, as EVS is using AI to enhance replays for sports events or using AI to make the most of the resources that you have in efficiency terms. Shaping the future in these ways is really exciting; the industry is actively redefining itself. AI is now just a part of editorial workflows and personalisation. Platforms are fragmenting, there is a rethink of commercial models because ad-funded broadcasting is undergoing some pretty significant changes. The pay TV bundle has exploded and now is reactivating in a slightly different form. Content experiences are changing. You can watch in UHD, you can watch in an immersive format now. The net result of all this is countless opportunities for new approaches to growth and for talent development, bringing the next generation of people through into the industry. IBC is intended to meet all of that. What are the stats for this year so far? We have attendees from 170 countries, 14 halls across the RAI Exhibition Centre, 44,000 square metres of space already. The list of exhibitors is growing all the time; [at the time of writing] it is 1100, a record number so far. We’ve got an amazing lineup of new and also familiar names all telling their stories at the event to what should be hopefully a record attendance. We’re anticipating a vibrant and well- attended event that reflects the energy and diversity of our global industry. Tell me how you got into the business. I studied applied physics at university, so I’m logical and numerate, and I became a management consultant in the media industry when I graduated. Media people are challenging, entrepreneurial, entertaining, I liked working with them. I did an MBA at Bocconi in Milan, I went to UCLA, to the film school as well as the business school. My first job in the TV industry was at Telepiù in Italy, where we launched the first digital platform in Europe; it’s now better known as Sky Italia.
SEPTEMBER 2025 Volume 47 No.3
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