Other speakers include Andy Harries, Chief Executive of Left Bank Pictures; The Grand Tour executive producer, Andy Wilman; Michelle Guthrie, Managing Director of Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Sharon White, Chief Executive of Ofcom – with more names to be announced.
The biennial event, which takes place in Cambridge from 13-15 September, is this year entitled “A World of Opportunity”.
James Murdoch, Chief Executive Officer of 21st Century Fox, will deliver a keynote address.
Mark Linsey’s career in television has progressed from producing An Audience with Freddie Starr to the heady heights of running BBC Television. As Acting Director of Television – following the abrupt departure of Danny Cohen – Linsey finds himself playing a critical part as Charter renewal gathers pace.
Ask how an executive with 30 years in entertainment shows might play such a crucial role, and this safe pair of hands reaches for the word “distinctive”.
Today, I want to talk about one thing: content, programmes – the reason we’re all here. In this country we have a really vibrant creative ecology of broadcasting. It’s a great national success story.
But the question I want to talk about this afternoon is whether one part of that ecology will continue. Will we carry on making content to the degree and quality that we do now?
I’m concerned that, in all the arguments and debate about the BBC’s Charter, in a decade’s time we might look back and say that we missed something crucial – a big trend.
Who will own the future – the broadcasters, the content owners or the global tech behemoths, such as Google, Facebook and Apple? The question is not new, but it is becoming ever more pressing for people in television.
James Purnell, the BBC’s Director, Strategy and Digital, led this comprehensive opening debate, “Happy Valley or House of Cards? Television in 2020”.
