disney

It’s a harder task than it once was: audiences are more fickle than ever and there’s more choice from many more outlets, whether they are broadcasters or streamers. But there were many potential answers – among them, authentic local programming, sport, live shows, brand recognition and greater consumer choice – offered by the panellists in an informative session.

“Jen does so many things that can be seen as unlikeable, but I actually think people have grown to really like her,” Tyers tells me. “She does things or says things that we all think or feel but would never actually say out loud.”

Sethu will play the Doctor’s companion, alongside Millie Gibson (Coronation Street), who will be returning to play fellow companion Ruby Sunday. Gibson made her debut in the 2023 Doctor Who Christmas Special ‘The Church on Ruby Road’.

Gatwa and Gibson’s second season of Doctor Who will be the 15th series since the sci-fi staple was revived in 2005. However, Gatwa and Gibson’s first series – which sees the return of the revival’s original showrunner, Russell T Davies – will officially be known as ‘season one’.

Daily, we are bombarded by headlines announcing the wonders – and risks – that generative artificial intelligence is bringing to our lives. AI has been used to help identify the hostages taken by Hamas from southern Israel on 7 October. More mundanely, apparently it can also help stem the alarming rise in shoplifting. On the other hand, it could put many of us out of work, lead to rampant breaches of copy­right and, ultimately, make it nigh on impossible to tell what on our screens is fake and what is real.

In something of a coup for RTS North West, Liam Keelan, senior vice-president for original productions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Disney, told a packed auditorium about his mission “to make people think differently about what Disney does”, and what the role of North West indies could be in realising that aim. 

When Disney announced that its eagerly awaited streaming service, Disney+, would launch in the UK and Western Europe in March no one knew that the service’s debut would coincide with a global pandemic keeping millions of people at home.

“With much of the UK looking for entertainment while they are stuck at home, Disney+ is likely to be a big hit,” said Shiv Pabari, director of media and entertainment at Simon-Kucher & Partners. “Families, in particular, will be excited by the content offered.”

During these past 12 months Rupert Murdoch has been only half the man in the UK he used to be. But that’s only by one measure – Ofcom’s “share of references”, which calculates which news sources are consumed across different media. It was a year ago, in September 2018, that the then 87-year-old’s long association with Sky came to an end.

Chicago and Minneapolis may not seem like the homes of cutting­edge technology but, on 3 April, they became the world’s first two cities with commercial 5G mobile services serving 5G-enabled smartphones.

The service was launched by US carrier Verizon, keen to beat several Korean rivals to the bragging rights for commercialising 5G first, if only by a few hours.